At the Centerfold of the Storm
by SHADO Commander
Summary: WINNER OF EIGHT FANNIE AWARDS! Posing for THAT risque photo in CLIQUE CLIQUE lit the fuse. Now, stripped of the protection that being a minor gave her, Kim has to come to terms with herself, her changing relationship with a certain green former hero, and a deadly new world where there's a price on her head! Sorry for the long delay, but CHAPTER 61 is FINALLY here!
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note: I really hadn't planned on doing any multi-chapter stories, but almost immediately after posting __**CLIQUE CLIQUE**__, two thoughts entered my head: 1.) that the title was an INCREDIBLY lame pun, even for me, and 2) the dozens of possible consequences of Kim posing for a calendar. The notes started piling up on the Blackberry and here we are. Having read __**CLIQUE CLIQUE**__ isn't necessary to following __**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM**__, as I've tried to make sure that any pertinent story details that the reader should be aware of have been recapped sufficiently. As the two stories have decidedly different tones and themes, I made the decision to keep them separate. Of course, it you want to go ahead and read __**CLIQUE CLIQUE**__ first, it's a brief 1520 words, but the last time I checked, it wasn't showing up under a search by title, so you'll have to search by author instead. __**Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Frugal Lucre, Professor Dementor, Wade Load, Bonnie Rockwaller, The Doctor's Possible, Dr. Director, the Tweebs, Team Go and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context is probably considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein IS original to this manuscript, but I release any claim to the character. If you want to use her for your own dastardly purposes, go right ahead… but treat her like a lady. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. Finally, the M placed on this work is provisional. I know where the story is going, just not the exact route that it will take to get there. I do promise, however, that there will be no appearances by Bobo the Chimp. Maybe._

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AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

By SHADO Commander

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"Oh my God, there's a SCREENSAVER too?" Kim Possible growled, not believing what she had just seen, and, even worse, where she had seen it: Repeated a hundred times on every monitor in Professor Dementor's latest stronghold.

It was hard enough to fight evil when all you had to face were henchman intent on beating you, but when they came at you with glazed, drooling expressions and you had a sneaking suspicion they had been beating off TO you…

So the drama.

Never mind, she plowed through the massed minions, scattering lecherous underlings like kindling to the wind and rewarding the odd punch that connected or grope that gripped with a savage kick that shattered hands, fractured tibias and made noses go crunch with a sickening sound like celery being snapped off in someone's skull. If these idiots wanted to ignore the unwritten rules of engagement, she was oh so happy to return the compliment. At the end of a sharp snap kick to the groin.

Okay, so she'd been a little testy about how some super villains had reacted to that photo. Most of them couldn't resist sneaking in some kind of leering dig, but the one thing that was consistent was that she was no longer a "teen hero" in anyone's mind.

No, she didn't regret doing it. The X-Middleton Cheerleader calendar that she, Bonnie and the other former members of their award-winning cheer squad had posed for had been done for a great cause that she believed in. She just hadn't expected it to be quite as… successful as it was. Of course, the X-Maddogs calendar that Ron and the football players had shot also made fantastic numbers… just over 5 million copies, which in the calendar market was like headlining the hardcover bestseller list for three straight months… and at last count had plunked nearly $18 million dollars into the "Rebuild Middleton" fund that the graduates had agreed to donate all of the profits to. That was no small achievement and Kim made a point of always trying to refer to the calendars in plural. However, even she slipped at times, and she supposed that it was a little hard for those who hadn't been directly involved with the project to remember it. Not when one considered that the Cheer calendar had rocketed past the X-Maddogs to become the best selling calendar of all time. Kim still had trouble believing it, and had given up keeping track when the sales figures passed over 100 million copies (after all the various formats and the 17 different language versions were tallied together.) It was just too much to process… especially when it was her picture on the cover and as the photo spread for December.

Completely nude except for a conveniently placed snake.

Leaving a pile of broken, groaning and possibly never able to reproduce henches on the floor behind her, Kim quickly checked the GPS on her Kimmunicator and headed for the zone Wade had marked as Q7 on the map. As she mounted the stairs, another set of henchmen arrived, all dressed in the same ink-stained coveralls and wielding a variety of blunt instruments. She targeted the biggest, a dim-looking ape with a monkey wrench who'd made the mistake of standing in front, grabbing his baggy uniform and using him as a ladder to vault over the others. Suddenly behind them, she took advantage of their surprise and shoved the entire pack down the stairs as a single unit. It was a hefty drop and gravity did the rest for her. Slamming and locking the secure door they had just exited behind her, she continued her thrust into the lair.

Oh, nothing had really been visible of course… the snake actually covered more than her normal bathing suit, and at the time Kim had felt that it was relatively tame compared to Bonnie's shot. THAT image, modeled after an original by someone named Betty Page, had raised quite a few eyebrows with its overt bondage elements, but it was Kim's tribute to the classic Avedon/Nastassja Kinski photo that had become the focus of all the talk. Especially since the same image was repeated AGAIN on the cover of NEWSTIME the week before the calendar came out, fronting the article where she, the other cheerleaders and Ron had explained how Middleton was desperate for rebuilding funds in the wake of the Lowardian invasion, and how they had agreed to do the calendar at the request of Mayor Frugal Lucre, as a way of literally keeping the lights on after dark in their hometown. Kim had also used the article to emphasize that she'd a "closed-set" policy on her very brief shoot, with only the female photographer and her female assistants present. After all, as a cheerleader, it wasn't as if she wasn't used to being nude around other women in a locker room, but the presence of a camera changed everything and she'd wanted to be very clear on what the conditions of what she'd done were. Which was why, when Bonnie's private photographer had provided a whole file of "behind the scenes" shots of her scandalous shoot that had clearly NOT had a "no-males" policy , Kim had been compelled to authorize the release of a single longer shot of her own shoot, just to show that HER shoot hadn't been like that. In retrospect, Kim wished she'd been a bit more careful in okaying the image that she did, because she'd been so careful making sure the naughty bits were covered that she hadn't looked at her face in the shot. It was only the third image that had been shot and she simply hadn't realized how nervous and vulnerable she had looked in it, which ultimately bothered her a lot more than the fact that someone on the internet had eventually blown up the tiny image to reveal a stray wisp of pubic hair behind the snake.

Kim guessed it said something that she cared a lot more about the fact that the world had seen a crack in her emotional armor than that it now knew for sure that she was a natural redhead.

She was getting close to her goal now. The two henches she took out in the long hallway weren't even expecting a fight, but she took them down as a precaution. A side sweep sent the first into a wall with a head-cracking thud, the second got a punch in the throat that left him gasping for air, unable to stop the elbow that connected with the side of his skull, sending him to an early bedtime. It was overkill, but she wasn't about to leave her back uncovered.

What really had taken time to get used to was that while a lot of people had KNOWN who she was before, now she was RECOGNIZED everywhere. In the course of just a few weeks she had gone from being a basic, average girl who could walk on the street almost anywhere in the world completely incognito, to someone who often had to wear disguises, even wigs, just to go shopping. The release of the calendar had been like a flag announcing she was fair game for the paparazzi, and her favorite store, Club Banana, had been completely off limits ever since the rack of calendars went up at the front register. Even now, in late April, they continued to move at a steady pace, and with every unit sold brought the city between 4 and 6 dollars closer to restoring Middleton to what it had been before the Invasion, the local store had a special display in the front window. The last time she'd tried to go to CB during business hours, she'd come out of the changing room to find over twenty people standing there, waiting for her with brand new calendars they wanted signed. She'd obliged, but had had to politely refuse autographing certain other items that were proffered… even they were brand new and just paid for, signing underwear was just NOT something she could do. After that, Monique and Wade had come up with a way for her to preview the new clothes over her Kimmunicator so Mo could then bring the ones she was interested in to her house for a private fitting at her house, but she hated the idea of inconveniencing her friend like that.

And then there were the posts to her website. Wade screened those and notified local authorities where necessary.

That attention had been a big part of her decision not to go to college just yet. Despite having been offered scholarships from dozens of major universities, she'd first put off the fall semester while helping organize the rebuilding efforts, and then between the world-saving thing and suddenly living her life in a goldfish bowl, she'd decided to give it at least one more semester for everything to calm down. If it was still bad after that, she'd look seriously at starting her studies online. Both Yale and Harvard had actually offered to custom design courses for her… but again, she hated the idea of inconveniencing anyone.

And the truth was, as annoying as the current situation was, it was bound to pass eventually and she suspected she'd be feeling even guiltier if she hadn't done the calendar. They'd all known it would make money based on last years school calendar, so saying no would have felt like a slap in the face of the people and town that had nurtured her. Hard currency was scarce, assets limited and credit non-existent unless you were willing to pay rates that were literally criminal. And if you were waiting for the federal government to help you with rebuilding, good luck. The lines to FEMA stations spread out over two thirds of the country were every bit as nightmarish as the ones after Katrina, although at least the organization that had been lacking then was gone. No, the problem was just that there were too many places that needed assistance all at once. Kim had been in Upperton just last week and the formely thriving metropolis still looked as bad as Middleton had just weeks after the Lowardians had been repelled. By comparison, Middleton's recovery was almost miraculous. Sure, there were still a lot of empty spaces where flattened buildings had been, but they were clean empty spaces, devoid of the rubble and twisted rebar that still littered the streets of Upperton, and many of the now empty lots already sprouted a fresh crop of surveyors' markers. City services ran without interruption, working parents had daycare, everything was slowly going back to normal.

And the story of Upperton was repeated just about everywhere the Lowardians had landed attack units. True, Go City didn't look quite as bad as most, but they had a resident team of superheroes helping with the clearance and rebuilding, and Team Go had wasted no time in knocking out a calendar of their own when the cash returns on Ron's and Kim's. Perhaps, though, their choice of a "Zodiac" theme had been unwise. The vision of Hego wearing cow horns as Taurus the Bull had almost caused Kim to choke to death on a Naco salad, and the Wegos were still refusing to acknowledge which of them had posed as Virgo. Still, that calendar was out there and it WAS putting money directly back into Go City's struggling economy.

So no, she didn't regret doing the calendar, not in the grand scheme of things. It was just that she wished she'd been better prepared for how that one hour with a photographer would turn everything in her life… well, if not upside down, then definitely skewed to a whole new angle.

She'd reached the end of the hallway without further interruption. According to the grid on her Kimmunicator, the objects of her quest were in the next room. Sure enough, the door to what the map said was a huge warehouse-like area was labeled Q-7. Someday the supervillains were going to catch on to the fact that designing your lair on a PC with internet access was like giving Wade the keys to their kingdom, but it was obviously something Dementor hadn't snapped to yet.

Taking a second to gather her breath, Kim switched the Kimmunicator to read heat sources. Sifting out the big machines in the middle of the room, she counted nine living bodies, one of which was probably PD himself. She gave herself a few more seconds, making sure there wasn't another person hidden within the heat signature of the machines. This was going to be really dicey as it was.

Like an idiot, she hadn't even thought about the fact that her parents were going to see "the photo" until she'd seen the first printed proof herself. When it hit, however, it brought with it as close to a panic attack as she'd had in years. She was legally an adult, of course, and didn't need their permission, but she'd been holding her breath when she'd finally shown the chosen image to her mom. And then there'd been that long, horrible moment, when her mom's hands had gone involuntarily up to her mouth, when the tears had formed in her mother's eyes. Her heart had dropped into her stomach until her mother had suddenly grabbed and hugged her with a soft "Oh Kimmie!" Eventually, between the sniffling, Kim had been able to work out that it wasn't the content of the picture that had made her Mom upset, but rather what it represented. "I think your father would call this a parental paradigm shift," her mother had finally sighed. "You risk your life almost every day, take more responsibility than most people twice your age, but it took this picture to hammer in the fact that my little girl is her own person now."

Dad's reaction had been a bit more guarded. Kim had let her mom handle the dirty deed of showing him the picture and she hadn't heard any screaming or threats to send the photographer to Neptune. The closest he'd really come to a direct acknowledgment was a soft "I guess so much for the no boys rule now, huh?" But he'd smiled when he said it, and when she hugged him she knew everything was alright.

And as for the Tweebs, Kim wasn't sure if her brothers' jaws had come up off the floor yet. Every time they looked at her, it was as if she'd grown wings or a second head. Come to think of it, from their point of view maybe she HAD grown some extra appendages.

But the reaction that had really altered everything had been Ron's. She'd gone over to his house to find him flipping through the galley proofs, a strange, unreadable expression on his face.

"I keep looking at this," He'd said, sounding as lost as he had that one horrible summer they'd gone to different camp. "And I keep wondering if this is all I'm supposed to feel?"

Unsure of what to say, she'd responded simply by sitting next to him on his bed, placing one small hand on his shoulder. She'd known all too well what he meant. Ever since they'd started dating, there'd been a sense of awkwardness between them, but this was the first time either of them had brought it out into the open.

"There's something missing, isn't there?" She asked, finally finding the words. "With us?"

"Yeah," Ron had sighed. "I mean, I look at this picture and I know I should be aroused but…"

"It's like looking at your sister," She'd filled in. It wasn't hard to guess. She felt for him the same way she did the Tweebs.

Ron tossed the proof aside and wrung his head in his hands. "It's not that I don't love you K.P., but I just feel terrible that there's no spark. I mean, I look at Tara's picture… even Bonnie's… and I… I feel things that I don't feel for you."

It had hurt, like a punch in the stomach, but at the same time she was overwhelmed by equal waves of relief and guilt. Relief that it was finally out in the open. Guilt that she'd let it go on for so long. She thought of all the nights she'd spent lying in her bed, wondering if she'd been making the worst mistake of her life by taking the easy path.

"It's okay Ron… " She'd said at last. "You've been my best friend forever. Maybe we were just asking for too much. To hope we could be everything for each other."

The tears were flowing down her face, but the smile on her lips was reassuring. "You're the most wonderful boy… man I've ever known, but I don't want to risk losing what we have… because we weren't able to give each other what we need."

And like that, they were back to being just friends. Best friends. And they were both fine with that. More than fine. For the first time since kicking Shego into that electrical tower, she felt she was herself again, not someone playing a part.

Unfortunately, unlike Kim, Ron hadn't had managed to keep his grade point average up to the level where he had college offers to spare, and when he got an offer from the Cordon Bleu in Kobe, it was too good an offer to pass up. Kim suspected that it might have something to do with a certain other school he'd attended in Japan, and perhaps a certain fellow student, but Ron had always been fairly close-mouthed about what went on when he was over there.

Which was why Kim was currently slogging and punching her way through Dementor's deranged band of manners-deprived deviants all by herself. It wasn't how she wanted things to be, but she'd found that she couldn't not keep trying to save the world, even if Ron was on the other side of the planet. And this particular mission was much too personal to let Wade slide it over to Global Justice or Team Go.

Kicking in the door, Kim burst through, immediately firing her grapple to the roof at the far side of the room. A quick push of the retract button and she was over the heads of the first group of underlings. At twenty feet in the air, she could see that her total body count was correct and there were no other hidden surprises. Releasing the hook and retracting the grapple, she dropped to the top of the largest machine , where a length of pipe had been conveniently left.

The use of weapons was a new addition to Kim's array of fighting patterns, but after a nightmarish encounter with Duff Killigan, she'd started learning a dozen new forms that favored them. _Escrima_, the Filipino martial art that used sticks in a variant of fencing, was one of the ones she'd mastered first and there was almost always something that could be turned into an impromptu _yantok_ or _dulo y dulo_… even a rolled magazine could be lethal. As a reserve, she also now carried three flat throwing knives, one in her right boot, one taped to her upper arm and one that was actually inside the Kimmunicator and could be ejected by a code whistle. She preferred to keep those a secret, however, and in this case the six foot length of pipe was more than long enough to wield as a stave or _bankaw_.

With a scream, Kim fell on the horrified henchmen, giving no quarter. After a leering Killigan had made all too clear what he was going to do to Kim once his goons had her tied and bound, she'd made an oath that she'd never let herself get in that situation again. A golf club, ironically, had been the weapon of Duff's doom, and the sheer terror of knowing that she was going to be raped had given her the strength to break half the bones in his body as well as a good percentage of his henchmen's. When he finally got out of the prison infirmary, Duff was never going to putt straight again… and in his case, the answer to the question "what does a Scotsman have beneath his kilt" would be nothing. Nothing at all.

The combination of a merciless Kim Possible and a six foot steel staff was too much for the overmatched hirelings. Six were on the ground, unconscious or incapacitated, one was wedged between the giant drums of the huge machine, and the eighth was now collapsing as Kim's bankaw broke his jaw.

That left Dementor himself, who was cowering behind the crates of his own contraband and frantically stuffing some kind of foreign currency into a bag. He froze as she leaped atop the boxes and took careful aim with the staff.

"Nein! Not mit der hitting, Fraulein Possible!" Dementor begged pitiously. "You haf already beaten mein henchman! Haf mercy! I surrender!"

"Surrender?" Kim snarled back. "You should have thought of that the last couple of times you escaped after 'surrendering.' This time Dr. Director just said she wanted you brought in, she didn't specify a physical condition."

The terrified Teutonic face went white inside his helmet as Kim used one foot to pop open the top of the nearest crate, just to confirm her suspicions. Yep. It was filled to the top with Counterfeit X-Middleton Cheerleader calendars… this year's pictures, next year's days and weeks.

"You REALLY stole from the wrong people this time," Kim smiled as she raised the staff.

The "gonging" sound his helmet made as she connected reverberated though out the entire lair.

Later, as the Global Justice pickup team finished prepping the wreckage of Dementor's conies for their trip to a holding facility, Kim looked again at the box of fake calendars. She knew what it meant, that she had to come to a decision soon.

When they asked her to pose again, could she tell them "no"?


	2. Chapter 2

_**Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Mister Stoppable, Frugal Lucre, Wade Load, Bonnie Rockwaller, The Doctor's Possible, Dr. Director, the Tweebs, Shego, Team Go and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context is probably considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein IS original to this manuscript, but I release any claim to the character. If you want to use her for your own dastardly purposes. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown doing anything that can be construed as adult type behavior should be considered to be over the legal age of 18…_

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AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter Two

Mayor Frugal Lucre sat in his office, frowning. Had he been any other supervillain, he would have been rather pleased with himself. After all, not only was he technically no longer in Global Justice custody… though he WAS still in their facility, he was also actually the duly elected Mayor of Kim Possible's hometown. The thing was, Frugal Lucre wasn't any other supervillain… in fact, he really wasn't a supervillain at all. Whereas others like Dementor and MonkeyFist had got into the villain racket in order to gain power and fame, Lucre had done so because it had seemed like the easiest way to overcome his own pathological inability to stand by and watch money being wasted. At the time he'd believed that the easiest way to stop all the horrible wastage he'd had to watch every day was to simply take over and stop it himself.

He'd been wrong, of course, because he hadn't taken into account all the costs that would be incurred in the cost of actually taking over, and subsequent exposure to other supervillains had left him convinced that the current system of checks and balances was better suited for running the world, at least for the near future. He'd readily admitted that in a full confession he'd made quite willingly to a dubious Betty Director, taking the advice from his (purchased used) copy of _Plea Bargaining for Dummies and Ubervillains_. He'd agreed to plead guilty, minimizing trial costs, and had actually found his time in the GJ special security facility to be more pleasant than his normal life. The food was better than his previous regimen of ramen and SmartyMart canned produce, his linens were cleaned free of charge, and since he'd never been willing to pay for cable, the provided TV was all the entertainment he needed. Best of all, he usually had a bunkmate to talk to, and since some of the GJ facilities were co-ed, he'd actually met some very nice ladies who had been quite impressed with the fact that, unlike most residents of the prison, he had no problem getting the special amenities they craved thanks to regular shipments from his longtime supplier Martin Smarty.

What HAD impressed Dr. Director was the fact that once Frugal was interned, he'd become more than a model prisoner. He'd even become the go-to guy for a large number of Global Justice agents when they needed advice on taxes and investments, something that was made possible by his development of a triple-blind system where it was impossible for him to ever see any personal information (SS#, Credit Cards, Bank Accounts) so that he could do the grunt work with the calculations while they filled in the confidential parts on their own. The fact that it made him a favorite of the guards was a nice perk, but what really made him happy was knowing that he was setting people on a path that would lead to a much more cash-conscious future. That had inspired him to go a step further and start noting things that he saw around the prison itself that could use tightening. He was careful not to address salaries, of course, or suggest staff cutbacks, but even so he came up with an estimated budget that trimmed $18 mil off the center's annual operating budget AND allowed the installation of an on-site mini-SmartyMart where inmates could actually get job experience that would translate to the outside world.

She hadn't trusted him at all, needless to say, but after six different experts… including Ron Stoppable's father… had proclaimed Lucre's proposals "revolutionary but entirely financially sound," Betty had cautiously started implementing his ideas. Within a few months he'd completely won Betty over and began a systematic overhaul of Global Justice's labyrinthian maze of financial dead ends, again using the triple blind system he'd developed. Results: projected annual savings of $2 BILLION, and the raises and improved benefits package he'd recommended for GJ staff had made him even more popular.

In the aftermath of the Diablo debacle, Betty had decided to throw Lucre at a bigger target, helping to repair the damaged national infrastructure. Always as part of a team, of course, but with the unspoken acknowledgement that Lucre would be the point man. It was the first time Lucre had to butt heads with petty-minded bureaucrats who seemed determined to do everything as inefficiently as possible, and more than a few chose to use the fact that the "financial expert" sitting at the end of the table was wearing a GJ ankle bracelet as negotiating tactic to keep their favorite pork-barrel projects alive. For someone who hated seeing money wasted more than anything, it was hell on Earth. And then Martin Smarty, a man for whom Lucre had always had tremendous respect, had made a comment that changed Lucre's life forever.

"The fact is," Smarty had told a particularly odious official as they were attempting to finalize a food services contract where SmartyMart would provide transportation to school systems on the reverse legs of their delivery runs, "Frugal Lucre could be the greatest financial genius of this century except for the fact that he is fundamentally unable to stand seeing ANY party to a deal end up getting the shaft. He's what all you political types always promise and never deliver."

For some odd reason, Lucre had never really considered politics before, but the more he delved into the murky depths of bureaucracy, and the more crooked and corrupt politicians he met, the more he saw the desperate need for more common sense in how the government was handling money. Researching the issue in a borrowed library copy of _"So You Want to Run for Office But You're a Convicted Criminal,_" Lucre was surprised to learn that Middleton, the very city where the GJ Facility in which he was incarcerated was located, was one of the places where a convicted felon could actually hold public office. He couldn't VOTE for himself, ridiculously enough, but he could run. And when the current administration, completely exhausted by the rigors of recovering from the initial phases of the Diablo disaster, threw in the towel, Lucre seized the opportunity.

Unwilling to lock himself into the tenets of any of the major parties, and reasonably sure that he'd be shunned by them in any case, Lucre had quickly formed his own political association, which he dubbed the "Common Cents" party. Disregarding any other issues or platforms, he'd focused solely on the economic mess that the city (and by extension, most of the country) was in. His campaign manifesto was his budget, which he put up on his website and openly asked for any improvements on. He spent no money on TV, instead working a "trade-for" deal with SmartyMart to have his flyers printed on the backs of store brand food products and receipts. He financed his mail-out costs by including his flyers with saver-pack coupons. And as he gathered volunteers, instead of putting them to work at phone banks or knocking door to door, he sent them around the city asking people where THEY thought the budget could be better spent. Sure, it was an odd approach, challenging people to think instead of simply telling them a party line, but it DID motivate the people who were already motivated enough to vote in the first place. The television coverage he had spurned quickly came back in his favor as the news began to cover the man who was climbing up in the polls despite running his campaign from a penitentiary, and the anchors never seemed to be able to get enough mileage out of his own candid admission that, "Yes, he'd been a criminal, but so were a large percentage of politicians and at least he was open about it. Besides, if the electorate didn't like the job he did, he'd already be in prison so there'd be no cost of an impeachment."

The final touch had been the three way debate on the campaign. By forcing his opponents away from issues that were completely outside the scope of the position they were competing for and back to economics, Lucre was able to completely dismantle both parties attacks with cold and simple logic. How could the Repubicans argue for the validity of "Trickle down" economics when that candidate' own plastics company had moved its factories and customer service departments overseas and his own personal wealth was hidden in a tax-shelter? (Lucre had taken just a bit of evil pleasure in having the accountant who'd engineered that very shelter, now a fellow inmate, wave hi to his former boss.) And how could the Democrats argue for increased spending on social services, however noble the cause, when they were already running in deficit on existing programs where what should have been enough money was being consumed by six layers of needless middle management? Lucre's closing argument, that his own campaign, based on a budget that had been endorsed by hundreds of world-renowned financial experts and almost all the local law enforcement agencies (the exception being a singular Sheriff from an outlying suburb noted for its speedtraps,) was actually running cash-positive despite having never taken a single public donation, was the clincher. He'd won the three way election by a sufficient majority to not even require a runoff.

And then, less than three months later, the Lowardians had attacked. In the wake of the devastation, nobody would have been surprised if Lucre had gone back on some of his plans and campaign promises. Instead, he'd actually become more ruthless in his managing of the budget, decreeing that deficit spending would only be an option when it could be shown to actually save money. He's been brutal in negotiating with the companies that swarmed in to do business. The ones that agreed to his draconian terms got the jobs, the ones that decided to look elsewhere despite the desperate need found the full details of the deals they'd turned down on the internet. Everyone told him that it would be political suicide, but no one really seemed to understand that for Lucre, politics were only a means to an end, not an end in and of themselves. And besides, it was, quite simply, the wrong time to look greedy in the public eye, as the knowledge that not only was there life beyond our planet but that some of it was openly hostile, brought the people of the world together in a shared brotherhood. As a result, the presidents of two of those companies had been tossed by their stockholders, a dozen more had shamefacedly come back to the table, and the one company with organized crime connections that had attempted to put a hit on Lucre had discovered the hard way that trying to kill the most loved inmate in a state of the art jail run by Global Justice and filled with super villains was really an extremely bad idea. When the company's entire board and a large percentage of it's less savory consultants simply vanished off the face of the Earth, Martin Smarty bought their assets and made an even better deal on concrete than Lucre had hoped for.

But even so, it had been only luck that the city had been able to weather the storm as well as it had, and some of those pieces of luck had been… the kind of thing that was starting to make Frugal Lucre truly believe in karma. Besides Martin Smarty, there was one other individual who seemed to keep coming back up in Lucre's life: Kim Possible. However, unlike the proverbial bad penny, Lucre was beginning to realize that even if he hadn't been aware of it at the time, every change in his life that the plucky teen hero had engendered ultimately seemed to go his way. Being captured and sent to Jail had sent him on the path to politics in the first place, and it was the father of her associate Ron Stoppable who had helped get Betty to trust Lucre's plans. And then there'd been the calendars.

The first calendar, a simple homemade fundraising affair created by a high school cheerleading team that had attracted the attention of Martin Smarty (and there HE was again,) and gone on to be a critical cash cow at the moment Middleton needed liquid cash the most.

The second calendar. Okay, technically, the second TWO calendars, as the one featuring Ron Stoppable and other former Maddog players had done extremely well, but it was the X-Cheerleader calendar that had rocked Lucre's world. Professionally produced with entirely donated services, the only cost had been the printing itself, which had happily done by a local Middleton printing company using an advance from SmartyMart. Now distributed in 40 countries, it was an honest to gosh financial bonanza and had fired more cash into the reconstruction effort than any other single venture.

And no one doubted that the key to the calendar was Kimberly Anne Possible.

Which, of course, lead to the issue that Lucre was now struggling with. The fact was that reassembling the "X-Middleton Cheerleaders" was going to be a tricky issue no matter what. Five of the girls had already signed professional modeling contracts and while the girls might still be willing to pose gratis, their agencies might not so agreeable. And then there was Ms. Rockwaller, whose recent public incidents of public lewdness and general misbehavior and were really not the sort of thing the town council wanted to associate with Middleton. But without the other cheerleaders, would they even be able to convince Kim to DO another calendar? Lucre knew the young hero had been a little distressed at some of the initial reactions to the project, but she'd never actually said one way or the other if she regretted it. On the other hand, he knew that a lot of other people had tried to get Kim to pose for their causes since and she'd turned them all down. But if there WAS no new calendar, they were right back to where they'd been last year. The Middleton Miracle, as it was called by the media, would stall in its tracks. Unless he wanted his city to be in the same shape as Upperton or Go City, both of which were desperately short of reconstruction funds, SOMEONE was going to have to ask her, and that someone was probably going to have to be him.

"Damn it," Lucre sighed irritably. He was the mayor of a city, and he felt like a dirty old man. The trick would be to find a way to make it attractive enough to her that she wouldn't even think about saying no. But how could he…?

Lucre paused, thinking back over his last thoughts. And then the idea came.

Without a beat, he picked up his phone and began making calls.

########

Kim was pulling off her clothing even as she walked through the door. The flight back from Germany had been in the back of a overnight delivery plane, and while the ride itself had been smooth enough, the cargo hold where she'd tried to grab a few hours sleep had been less than clean. Fortunately, the small bathroom was the first door on the right as she entered her tiny apartment… she'd moved out to spare her parents and brothers the constant scrutiny of the paparazzi. While the Middleton PD was only too happy to come and haul off the vehicles that were in clear violation of the recently installed "no parking or waiting" signs, they'd have done little else for the first month after the calendar hit.

Fortunately, Dr. Director had steered her to this first floor walkup, which had been a safe house until someone got sloppy and a guest the last witness interned there had let in had splattered him across the wall of the dining area with a shotgun… if Kim looked hard, she swore she could see a human outline underneath the white paint, but Betty had sworn all the drywall was replaced.

Kim only stood under the spray long enough to wipe away the basic grime. What she really wanted was sleep, and if she started to shampoo her hair it would take forever to dry. Wrapping a long towel around her… the Propery of Global Justice printing ironically covering her ass… she wandered into the bedroom/living area and plugged her Kimmunicator into its dock on her PC. It was easier than typing in the complicated passcode/thumbscan that was the only other way to hook into the ultra-secure connection, and Wade would immediately know that she was online.

"Hey Kim," Wade smiled as he took in her lack of an outfit. He might be a child genius, but he was quickly becoming aware of exactly why Kim's photo had caused such a stir.

"Hey Wade, what's the sitch?" She yawned.

"Lots of e-mail and Bonnie's a bitch," Wade returned in what had become a common ritual.

"Oh God, what's she done NOW?" Kim moaned. They hadn't seen each other since the NEWSTIME interview, but ever since the calendar shoot, Bonnie had gone nuclear in her attempts to drive Kim crazy. Or perhaps it was just that Bonnie had always been this insane but her family kept her in check. Besides moving in with an international criminal… okay, it was Jr.'s dad who was really the criminal, no one took SSJ very seriously anymore… she'd been steadily building on the notoriety she'd gained as the "OTHER" model in the calendar. That first photo shoot had led to a whole series where Bonnie had pretty much revealed everything to anybody who wanted to look. Kim had to admit that she'd always felt that BonBon was better looking than she was, but the girl's personality had gone completely "Lohan." Besides being frequently photographed with no underwear at top clubs, she'd had three arrests for public intoxication and had flashed a prominent talkshow host in the middle of an interview where she'd obviously been under the influence of something.

That interview, of course, had been to promote Bonnie's so-called tell-all book, "Spread-Eagled- My Three Years Between Kim Possible's Legs." Kim hadn't read it, of course, but Monique had, and aside from an almost minute=by-minute description of what had occurred when Kim and Bonnie were accidentally molecularly bound together, the rest of the book was apparently mostly innuendo about what the other cheerleaders had THOUGHT was going on with Kim's (actually non-existent) sex life, spiced up with some rather shocking descriptions of what Bonnie herself had been up to.

"The woman had a three way with Brick AND Josh Mankey in the BOY's locker room!" Monique had informed Kim. "And then she…"

"SO DON'T WANT TO KNOW!" Kim had yelled, pretty much setting the tone for every conversation she'd had about Bonnie since then.

"Maybe you should get some rest first," Wade warned. "You're really not going to like this one."

Kim took a deep breath. Like she'd be able to sleep with THAT hanging over her head.

"Wade. What. Did. She. Do?"

The young boy flushed. "She's making a movie Kim."

"And…?" Kim was trying not to snarl.

"It's um… a porno, Kim," Wade gulped. "It's called Quim Possible – She'll DO anyone. She plays…"

"I can guess who she plays," Kim sighed, the beginnings of a migraine starting to pound beneath her temples. "And I'm assuming our legal experts say there's nothing we can do, right?"

"You're a public figure," Wade confirmed. "That means they can parody you as long as they don't say that this Quim IS you."

"Yeah, that's what I figured," Kim sighed. "So what else do we have to keep me up tonight?"

"Well… there are more offers about posing."

"Uh…"

"I know, I know. I sent the same blanket e-mail out to everyone, but there are three I think you should look at."

Knowing she'd probably regret it, Kim nodded. "Okay, shoot."

"The first is from the Society For the Prevention of the Wearing of Animals."

"The SPWA?"

"That's right. They want you AND Rufus to pose nude for a poster that'll carry the phrase "We Don't Need Fur and Neither Do You."

"Send it to Ron, maybe he'll be interested. Tell SPWA I don't have an issue with the poster, but their organization has some other political agendas that I'm not comfortable endorsing."

"Right. Very diplomatic," Wade nodded. "The second is from Global Justice."

That got Kim's attention. "What?"

"Well, apparently they're doing a Ladies Of Global Justice calendar. Dr. Director's already agreed to pose so…"

"What the hell do they need to raise money for?" Kim wondered. "Thanks to Lucre, they're positively swimming in cash."

"They didn't say and I'm afraid to ask. Something very black ops, most likely."

"Right. I think I can politely decline that as well. I'm not an agent of Global Justice, and if I were to do another calendar, it would have to be for a really good cause like restoring Middleton."

"Which brings us to request number three. Straight from the desk of Frugal Lucre himself."

"Oh shit."

"Yeah. I think you need to actually read this one." The lower half of Wade's image was suddenly cut off by the top part of a manuscript file, leaving only his eyes peering Kilroy-like above it.

Kim scanned the document quickly.

Stopped.

Read it again.

And again.

"They're serious?" She finally managed to ask.

"Deadly," Wade's eyes replied. "And you have to admit, if anything would outperform the last calendar, this is what would do it."

"Damn," Kim swore. "Damn, damn, damn." She'd almost been ready to say no, but this… this would help restore the devastated areas in four cities. And Wade was right. It would sell.

"And Abrianna Stein has already agreed…. To come back and shoot all 12 pictures?"

"She's already booked on a flight Friday. To come in and talk to you about it. About concepts."

"And…?" She didn't have to vocalize the rest of the question.

"Yes, Kim. Lucre already has everything lined up. Everything. If it doesn't happen, it's be because of you."

'_It's a damn good thing Lucre isn't a supervillain anymore', _Kim mused. '_He's obviously figured how to play me better than any of the others ever have.'_

"Okay…" She relented after a long moment of thought, suspecting that she'd be wondering about this decision for the rest of her life. "I won't make any promises. But I will meet with Anna to discuss it."

########

Three days later, Kim found herself in the lobby of the Middleton Fitz-Harlton. It was quite a step up from the Night's Inn where she'd met Anna prior to the last shoot. Apparently the hotel chain knew the high profile clients attracted by the top photographer in the entire world, and had eagerly donated the large room that would serve as the calendar shoot headquarters. The PROPOSED calendar shoot headquarter. She still hadn't agreed.

That's right, she thought, as she stepped into the ridiculously ornate elevator. She could still walk away.

And as her finger was poised to hit the "P" button for the penthouse, a voice she knew all too well hit her like a wall of bricks.

"Hold the elevator!"

Kim hit the open button quickly and looked up as the other person hopped into the elevator.

Their eyes locked.

The elevator door slid slowly shut.

And the one thing Kim wasn't prepared for was the shy, nervous smile on a face she hadn't seen in person for over half a year.

"So Princess," Shego smiled softly. "Are we gonna do this calendar or not?"


	3. Chapter 3

_**Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Mister Stoppable, Frugal Lucre, Wade Load, Bonnie Rockwaller, The Doctor's Possible, Dr. Director, the Tweebs, Shego, Team Go and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context is probably considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein and Cyn ARE original to this manuscript, but I release any claim to these characters. If you want to use them for your own dastardly purposes, go ahead. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown doing anything that can be construed as adult type behavior should be considered to be over the legal age of 18…_

#######

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 3

#######

It was a minute or so before Abrianna Stein realized what was wrong with her, why she felt so strange. She was lightheaded from lack of oxygen. How odd. She had become so used to hearing the phrase "breathtaking" used when others described her own work, that it had become just another trite expression; it was another thing entirely to actually experience the true meaning of the word.

Abrianna (Anna to her friends) wasn't an egotistical woman, but she knew she was good and it would have been hard for even a much less conceited person not to acknowledge that she was at the peak of her own profession. One of the most sought after photo journalists in the world and THE most recognized glamor photographer, she was the A at the top of everyone's A-list, the point at the top of the pyramid. And yet she had literally dropped everything to come out and do this shoot. No, not even a shoot yet, just the hope of a shoot. When word got out… so far it was a highly classified secret… there'd be few of her peers who would question her judgment; while those clients who might have taken umbrage at her sudden departure from the coast would either understand entirely or prove themselves to be unworthy of any further notice. Her agent, a man whose continence was so perpetually creased with a scowl that he could and did keep office supplies in his frown lines, was currently sporting a grin so wide his head was in danger of coming off when the two sides met at the back.

Looking at what lay before her, Anna now understood how Michelangelo must have felt when he conceived his David, how DaVinci must have reveled at the inspiration of the Mona Lisa. Even as a woman who had seen an endless parade of the worlds most beautiful bodies through the focus of her lens, she found herself staggered by the material she had the chance to work with, if only she could be convincing enough.

Kim Possible. When Anna had agreed to shoot Kim's entry in the previous year's calendar, it had been with incredible trepidation. After all, she was not only being asked to use an amateur model she had never met, but also to work with her to recreate another photographer's work. Both of these were things Anna would normally never have agreed to; but when the polite young man who acted as Ms. Possible's webmaster and public interface showed her the aerial footage of Kim's desperate run through a blazing forest fire, carrying a case of dynamite on her back, and explained how this had created the critical firebreak that had saved Anna's beloved family home and her precious animals, it would have really been impossible to turn her down. And then when she actually met the odd young woman face to face, she'd realized that it didn't matter what she was being asked to do, because ANY picture of Kim Possible was bound to be stunning.

Anna considered the teenager as she'd been when they first met. Kim had been drop dead exhausted, visible rings beneath her eyes and straight off a plane from… Seoul, if she recalled correctly. But even in that extreme state of fatigue, she'd been the most amazing combination of features she'd ever seen. A blazing halo of crimson hair, above huge emerald green eyes set in the face of an angel. And the body… Kim wasn't and never would be a Hollywood glamor goddess, but a goddess she most definitely was; as if a Greek sculpture of Diana the huntress had been somehow cast in muscles and sinew instead of marble or bronze. Each flex of her arm, each casual movement of her head, was like a symphony in relief, a study in rippling human anatomy. In forty years of photographing Hollywood's hottest and the latest "it" girls, the only place Anna had seen such utter perfection in a human form had been on Olympic athletes, and although the photographer was completely straight and generally preferred not to shoot nudes, she had made it her personal mission to steer Kim towards some subject where Anna could photograph that incredible body without any obstruction. She hadn't quite gotten her way… in fact, she'd been completely gobsmacked to realize that not only was Kim completely unaware of her own astounding beauty, but that the young woman was actually shy, self-effacing and extremely self-conscious about what she saw as deficiencies in her own physique! Mentally cursing a culture that emphasized the size of a woman's breasts over all other attributes, Anna had fortunately recalled Avedon's famous image of another unconventionally beautiful woman and had been able to convince Kim that the a conveniently wrapped boa constrictor would offer just enough coverage for decency's sake, while showing off the features that Kim WAS comfortable showing.

But once that agreement had been reached, Kim had trusted her entirely, to the point of actually falling asleep on a chair in the corner of Anna's hotel room while Anna worked out the logistics of the shoot. The girl had collapsed like a house of cards so quickly that Anna was worried she might be ill, but a call to the ever-available Wade informed her that Kim hadn't slept in two days and this kind of behavior was typical for her. They'd followed up with a conversation about obtaining a boa constrictor… apparently at some point in the past Kim had helped the owner of a reptile farm to recapture his escaped stock in the wake of a hurricane… and the man was only too happy to send an especially amenable reptile and a female handler in the form of his own daughter, one Millie Kananga.

The snake and daughter had arrived promptly the following morning and the shoot had taken less than an hour. By that time Anna had had enough time to decide how to put her own personal spin on the final image. It WAS a recreation of Avedon's in terms of pose, but it hadn't been hard at all to turn it into an entirely different kind of image thanks to the nature of the model herself. While Kinski's version had exuded a soft, smoldering sensual eroticism, Kim's version had much rawer, untamed feel. Coaxing Kim to think of the thing she had felt most passionate about, Anna had seen a green fire light in her eyes and managed to capture an almost feral expression that was far less a wanton come-hither and something much closer to the look of a lioness seeking a mate. The final touch had been the decision to use absolutely no diffusion or to retouch the image in Photoshop. What Anna had seen, and managed to preserve perfectly in the final shot, were the dozens of tiny fine scars that covered Kim's body, the battered knuckles upon the otherwise perfect hands. This was no soft object of fantasy, she was real, a force of nature, a tigress in human form. I am woman, hear me roar, Anna had thought, and the overwhelming response to the challenge in that picture had taken Anna's reputation to loftier heights than she had dared imagine. Her only regret had been that she hadn't been able to convince Kim to try any other poses, to do something that was even more daring, but there'd been a level of trust they'd established and she'd taken such a liking to the sweet and caring girl that she'd rather have lost the opportunity at a true masterpiece than jeopardized their friendship.

Now that reserve was paying her back in an unprecedented example of karma. For not only did she once again have the chance to have Kim Possible in her viewfinder, but this was a surer, more confident woman than the just-past-a-girl she'd shot a half year ago. Anna looked at the young woman sitting in one of the two plush chairs seated across from her desk in the office/entertaining section of her hotel suite and knew that if she could find the right bait, she could and WOULD push her farther.

And then… against Kim's ferocious femininity, Anna was staggered to find herself confronted with a second potential model who was somehow… as impossible as it seemed… Kim's complete and absolute equal. That was what had completely sapped the air from her lungs, and left her voiceless.

Shego. As perfect an opposite to Kim as could be imagined while remaining female. If Kim was a tiger, Shego was a dragon, impossibly powerful, perfectly formed, graceful as a serpent and almost alien in her beauty. If Kim was a Greek Goddess, then Shego was Kali unleashed, and in almost every way they contrasted as if design: Shego's pale green skin, the color of copper patina, was set off perfectly against Kim's bronze tanned flesh, her jet black hair with impossible hints of green was a midnight jungle against Kim's forest fire of flaming red… Only in their green eyes did there seemed to be any common ground between them. Different shades, but the same kind of fire. No, actually there was one other thing that inseparably tied them together… the impossible way in which they seemed to move in perfect counterpoint, instinctively flowing in liquid response to each other's slightest movement, as if at once a heartbeat away from battle… or a dance.

God, was THIS what Kim had been judging herself against all this time?

"Holy Shit," Anna's assistant Cynthia exhaled under her breath, breaking the silence by saying the words they both felt. Of course, unlike Anna, Cyn WAS gay, and Anna could see which way the pheromones on her side of the room were blowing.

"So do they do this a lot, Princess?" the green woman muttered, glancing at her fellow prospective model out of the corner of her glowing eyes as she tugged at the edge of the white T shirt she was wearing with one elegant finger.

"How should I know?" Kim whispered back, a flicker of amusement glittering in her own emerald pools. "The last time I was here it was 'drop your drawers,' 'click' and I was done."

"That must have been awkward. How'd your boyfriend take you stealing his drawers-dropping shtick?"

"I… he… oh shut up!"

Anna looked back and forth between Kim and Shego, and saw that the banter was just a shield to compensate for the nervous expressions they were trying to hide from each other. She'd known these two had a history, and sitting here rhapsodizing over her personal fortune wasn't helping sell them on the idea of posing. Damnit, where was her own professionalism? She normally didn't dilly-dally around like this!

"Okay Ladies," Anna finally managed to speak for herself, falling back on the crutch of cliché to get over her own loss of composure. "Let's talk about making some art."

"But first," Cyn interrupted smoothly, proffering a tray with a variety of soft drinks. "Would either of you like something to drink? And we've got some chips as well."

"Um," Kim smiled sheepishly, suddenly looking very young in the thin black tank top and gray corduroy shorts she'd worn to the meeting. "I wouldn't mind some of those. I haven't eaten yet."

"Damn, Princess, doesn't your mommy feed you anymore?" Shego snorted as she snagged the sole Green Apple soda.

"I moved out," Kim replied softly, leaning over to look at the plastic bag full of individual serving sized packets of chips Cyn had produced and selecting a bag of corn chips. "Things have been… " Another pause as the top of the corn chip bag fell victim to Kim's razor sharp canines…"Complex here."

"Mm," Shego replied, although it was hard to determine whether that was in reaction to Kim's statement, the taste of the soda or amusement at how the redhead was literally inhaling the contents of the corn chip pack.

"They've been complex everywhere," Anna ventured before the silence that followed could go on too long. "And of course, this calendar could do a lot to help the Tri-cities of Upperton, Middleton and Lowerton, as well as Go City."

"Well, that's why we're here, isn't it?" Shego returned cautiously. "My stupid brother's calendar helped rebuild the kid's hospital back in Go, and apparently Mr. Lucre thinks this would do a lot more, even split four ways."

"Yes," Anna replied. "I don't know if you're aware of it, but the calendar Kim posed for last year has now grossed over half a billion dollars."

"Half…" Kim chocked convulsively as her diet cola explosively tried to exit every orifice in her head… she swore some was even coming out of her eyes! "Half a bil…?"

"Oh yes," Anna replied, keeping one eye on Shego who'd looked horrifically worried for a second before slamming down the controls on her own expression while Kim was frantically trying to blot up the soda on her front with a handful of napkins that Cyn had smoothly produced from the same cupboard where the drinks and chips had come from.

"That's… impressive," Shego finally allowed.

"So, the question becomes," Anna slipped her first pitch in quickly, "How can we top it?"

"If we even do it," Kim corrected, having finally cleared enough cola from her nasal passages that she no longer had a stream of brown liquid dripping from her nose. "I haven't said yes, yet."

"Actually," Shego shrugged, "Neither have I. I only came because they told me Princess was probably going to do it."

Anna looked at the green woman quizzically, then glanced up at Cyn, who was now standing beside Kim, holding a trashcan that Kim was dropping the last of the wet napkins in. One wink told her that her assistant was reading the situation… the "sitch" as Kim like to say… the same way she was.

"Obviously," Anna allowed, "It's both of your decision to make. However, as a photographer, I have to say that I think this has the potential to be more than just a commercial achievement."

At that, both women looked at her with equally perplexed expressions.

"I don't just take pretty pictures," Anna continued. "I'm an artist who happens to work with images of people as my medium. What I see here is a chance to create something truly unique. Meaningful. And most importantly, something that can impact the lives of millions of young women in a truly beneficial way."

Two pairs of green eyes blinked as one in confusion.

"Explain," Shego demanded.

"Of course," Anna smiled, leaning back in her chair. "While art is not always about what is beautiful, what is beautiful is something that is determined by art. Consider the work of Rubens. In his day, he defined the ideal female figure as much heavier and more rounded than what's considered properly healthy today. In the 1920s, a wardrobe artist accidentally gave Clara Bow the illusion of a greatly flattened chest and the "flapper" look was born. Today, we have a horde of horrifically anorexic models on one side and a cultural obsession on large breasts on the other that leaves many young girls feeling as if they have to starve themselves or have surgery to fit the accepted archetype of beauty."

Anna directed that last bit at Kim, who paused in the process of swallowing the last handful of cornchips to blushingly acknowledge her own feelings of inadequacy concerning the latter.

"Now then, Kim, were you aware that since the X-Cheer calendar came out, sales of padded bras in Club Banana have dropped by almost thirty percent?"

"What?" That had Kim's attention.

"There's also been a measurable increase in the sales of sensible shoes. Going into a Club Banana, the typical young woman now sees that the strongest image in the store is a strong, assertive young woman who's naturally proportioned and isn't trying to force herself into the mold of a runway model. Sure, you're also in fantastic physical shape, but that's something that a girl should be interested in developing."

"What I see now," Anna concluded, "Are two incredibly strong, beautiful young role models who don't adhere to the images of the prefabricated Hollywood starlet or Heroin chic fashion dummy."

"Hating to play the Devil's Advocate here," Shego began…

"Oh, you're so not hating it," Kim interrupted. "You thrive on it."

"Be that as it may," Shego conceded, "Aren't the majority of the calendar buyers MALE?"

"Actually," Anna interjected, "While they're the largest single segment of the market, the X-Cheer calendar seems to have attracted a wider demographic. And let's not forget that many girls try to base their own appearance upon what they think the boys want to see. Surely you've noticed how many Hispanic girls draw the extended liner beneath their lower lip. It's not always flattering, but it's become so common that many never really stop to think about why they're doing it."

"And," Cyn added, "To be fair, let's also admit that there are a lot of young women who are finding their attractions run to other women, not men. They've been buying the calendar too."

"Oh." The look on Kim's face was priceless. "Oooh…"

"Does that bother you Kim?" Anna asked before Cyn did.

To her credit, Kim thought on it for a bit before she answered. "To be honest, I just hadn't thought about it. It… makes me feel like I need to go back and rerun some conversations I've had over again in my mind. Oh gosh…" She flushed a bright pink. "I'm sorry Cyn, I know you're gay and it doesn't bother me. I'm just embarrassed about being so awfully naive."

As one, all eyes in the room turned to Shego.

"Uh, no problem here," the green woman fidgeted. "Whatever floats your boat."

"Alright then," Anna brought the conversation back on track. "l think I've made the case for a cultural benefit. As far as the artistic end, I'll admit to being a lot more selfish. I agreed to do this because I think I can make something that will live beyond me. And I'll do whatever I can to make this something that we'll all be proud of."

"But," she emphasized, "In the end this calendar will be about the two of you. I'm not going to give you a concept and expect you to act as puppets. Nor…" She waggled a finger at Kim "Is this going to be a one hour session times twelve. If we do this, I want at least a week of your time, and half of that will be spent shooting things we'll probably never use. It'll be hard work… don't snigger Shego, you'll see that I'm right… and there will be times you'll absolutely hate me for asking you to do the same things a dozen times because the flash was just a fraction of a second off."

"On the other hand," Anna relented, "I'm not going to subject you to a massive makeup assault. Kim did her shoot wearing what she normally wears and she looked fantastic. I see no reason we can't do the same with Shego. If no one has every told you this before, my dear, you have features most models would die for."

"So," Anna finished, standing up. "Cyn and I are just going to step into the next room for a few minutes and let you girls talk among yourselves. Make up your minds if you're really going to do this, and if you are, start trying to come up with some ideas we can start building a shoot around. Okay?"

Kim and Shego looked at her, back at each other, and then back to Anna again.

"Okay."

"Whatever."

########

Anna and Cyn had barely made it into the next room and closed the door before the assistant started pumping her arms to the sky in a sign of victory.

"It's a done deal," Cyn assured Anna. "I'll bet my paycheck on it."

"I thought you were doing this for free?"

"Makes it kind of a safe bet doesn't it?" Cyn smirked. "And I still want expenses… what the hotel restaurant charges is highway robbery. But did you see how they kept looking at each other? Neither one of them can turn down a challenge, and they're not going to take the chance that the other might do it without her."

Anna nodded. That was what her instincts told her as well, but Cyn was generally better at reading people cold and had had a better chance to overtly observe Kim and Shego's body language. Much of which had been blocked from Anna's view by the desk. That's why Cyn was there, and so "helpful" after all.

"So…" She cocked an eye at her assistant. "What are your OTHER instincts telling you?

Cyn's response was just a huge Cheshire cat grin.

##########

Back in the other room, the subjects of the preceding conversation had their own thoughts to occupy them. Kim was still trying to get over the weirdness of seeing Shego like this… it wasn't just that she wasn't wearing her signature cat suit, but she wasn't even wearing green or black. Not that she looked bad in her white T-shirt and cream joggers shorts, just different, but the cheap foam sandals were the thing that Kim's mind kept screaming was totally wrong. Shego wearing flip-flops?

"Well, that was quite a song and dance," Shego remarked, turning her attention from the door where the other women had exited and back to her arch-rival. "The question is, did you buy what she was selling?"

Kim grimaced and tried to frame her response logically. Which, since it was something that had to be based more on emotion more than concrete hard facts, wasn't exactly easy to do. Without thinking , she found herself on her feet, heading to the cupboard where she'd seen Cyn stash the chips. Helping herself to a handful of packets, she began pacing as the first bag of potato chips suffered the same fate the corn chips had.

"I believe that she believes what she said," Kim finally managed. "But I also think she's understating the bit about working us hard."

Shego, who had drawn her legs and arms up into a Buddha-like posture, tilted her head inquisitively, looking at the pacing ex-cheerleader in moderate disbelief.

"I'm serious Shego," Kim continued. "She gets into your head, tries to pull what makes you "you" out so that the camera can capture it. I was surprised how hard it was to dig through your own emotions like that… She only had me for an hour and I felt like I'd just run a marathon."

"Sounds like therapy."

"Yeah. I guess," Kim allowed. "Wait. You've been in therapy?"

"Hello! Turned into a green skinned freak by a rogue comet in junior high, peer pressured into becoming a superhero, went rogue, became a supervillain and been sent to how many prisons by a punk school kid? What do you think, Cupcake?"

Kim stopped her pacing with a look of chagrin. "Okay, yeah. That was stupid."

Kim tried to meet Shego's eyes squarely and was relieved when the other woman seemed to have taken the apology at face value. In fact, Shego's thoughts seemed to have progressed to an entirely different topic.

"Still… she did make you look good," Shego mused out loud, then flushed as Kim looked at her in surprise. "What? You think I wasn't going to look and see what you guys had done before I put my own green ass on the line?"

"Um," Kim replied brilliantly, now working on a bag of cheese puffs.

"And actually," Shego continued, rising from own her chair in a single long, sinuous and slinky motion, "What you're saying ties in with what really impressed me about that picture. It was YOU, not some glammed up kid wearing too much makeup. She saw the Kim I've fought so many times and somehow put her on paper." Shego stopped, seemed to consider saying something else, as if unsure of the correct wording.

"Goosebumps," She finally managed to latch onto the right way to describe it. "But in a good kind of way."

"Ah," Kim countered. She wasn't sure she wanted to admit that when Anna had asked her to visualize the thing she was most passionate about, she'd thought about fighting Shego. It gave her an odd tingle inside to know that some of that feeling had actually been perceived by its original target… and the fact that Shego hadn't immediately made any derogatory remarks was also… a pleasant surprise.

"So why are you doing this?" Kim asked, slowly turning her body to track Shego as she walked in a circular pattern to the sofa at the far side of the room, always seeming to keep the maximum possible distance between them. "Lucre said you weren't asking for anything besides Go City getting part of the proceeds."

"To begin with, I didn't ask for anything, ever. Lucre's people passed the deal down to my people pretty much as it is in that contract." Shego's gaze had been focused elsewhere up to this point, but now her eyes came up to meet Kim's. "And as for why, don't you think I care about the city I grew up in too?"

The pale woman's tone had taken on a bit of an edge and now it was Kim who turned her eyes away for a second. And in that brief moment, Shego was suddenly much closer.

"So anyway," the raven haired beauty continued, "I've been through Middleton a few times and I've seen what's been happening here. Go City's not as bad as Upperton and Lowerton, but it's going to be years before they get everything back together without a lot of help. You know my brothers did a calendar, right?"

Kim nodded.

"Well, Mego'd asked me if I wanted to participate. But before I could even make up my mind, Hego nixed the idea. No villains, reformed or otherwise, no thank you." Shego's look was bitter, her impression of her older brother dead on. "After you, me, Doc and Monkey Boy saved the damn planet."

"Are you sure he wasn't just uncomfortable with the idea of you posing?" Kim asked. "It always seemed to me that Hego's got the telephone pole of righteousness up his ass."

"I…" Shego paused, taking in the fact that goody-goody Miss Priss Possible had just used the words pole, up and ass in the same sentence. "I don't know. I'd never thought of it that way. But they did their calendar after you guys did yours, and when I was there for Xmas, I never picked up any vibe that he thought there was anything wrong with what you'd done."

"You spent Christmas with them?" Kim was unexpectedly glad about that. She'd wondered if her former foe had been able to start rebuilding all the bridges she'd burned with her family.

"Yeah," Shego shrugged. "It wasn't THAT awful."

Remembering her own experiences with the Go boys, Kim wasn't quire ready to buy that.

"Okay, it WAS about as bad as you'd think," Shego admitted at Kim's look of incredulity.

"So anyway," Shego picked up again. "I blew the whole idea off until Lucre slid this my way. And let's face it Princess, even though I'm twice as hot as you are, a calendar with just me isn't going to pull the numbers yours did. What did Eddie Murphy say… if it's green it must be bad?"

"You're not… " Kim began, then redacted herself. "I mean… I'm getting a mixed message here. Are you saying you want to do this or not?"

"I'm saying I'm intrigued."

Kim wasn't sure how to respond to the anomalous misty look in Shego's eyes. "So, do you want another drink?" She asked, crossing back to the cupboard.

"Let me ask you this pumpkin." Shego's voice was unnaturally close.. "When you did that first picture. Are you saying you didn't want to do it?"

"No," Kim admitted, turning to confirm that Shego really was right behind her again. "I did. But I mainly did it to show up Bonnie Rockwaller. Not exactly the right reasons."

Kim's admission seemed to take Shego off guard. "Rockwaller… that skank who's been doing Junior up and down the Mediterranean?"

"And the general bane of my existence." Kim confirmed.

"Oh that hurts Kimmie!" Shego actually managed a credible imitation of the patented Possible puppy dog pout. "I thought I was the bane of your existence?"

"No…" Kim replied carefully. "Not after you saved my life how many times? You were my enemy, but then… I guess I started thinking of you as more of a rival. The benchmark I measured myself against."

"Huh." Shego's response was thoughtful.

"What?"

"S'kinda the way I've been thinking about you too." Shego mumbled, looking around the room, at pretty much everywhere and everything except directly at Kim. "So since you've worked with Ms. Famous photographer before, there anything else I should know about?"

"Um…"

"Um what?"

Kim wasn't sure how to phrase it politely, so she just let it roll out. "She's going to try her damndest to get us naked."

Shego grinned at the brilliant red color that was spreading across Kim's cheeks. "Ya… seems like she didn't just TRY last time, Princess."

"You should have seen some of the other things she was suggesting," Kim retorted. "I… Look, you haven't been around… and where the hell HAVE you been anyway? Let's just say that picture changed a lot of things and not all of them have been real warm and fuzzy."

"We can talk about where I've been later," Shego fired back, arching one eyebrow. "So the world finally came back and bit Pollyanna on the ass, huh?" A long beat. "But here's the important thing, do you regret it?"

"No…" Kim responded truthfully. "I guess I don't. I'm a little older and a lot wiser. I suppose the education was worth the price."

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger," Shego nodded. "Now you understand half of my mantra."

"And the other half?"

"Do what you want and fuck what other people think, 'cause the worms are gonna eat all of us in the end."

Kim laughed out loud at the classic Shego smirk the other woman delivered the last line with. "I think that sounds like you're going to do it…"

Shego's smile was sly, wicked and suddenly very close as she leaned in. "Oh, I have to do it Kimmie."

"Uh… why?" Kim suddenly realized that her back was to the cupboard and that Shego had neatly trapped her, one long green arm on either side.

"Because I know you, Kimmie," The possibly reformed villainess gloated. "And I know that if I say yes, you're going to say yes too."

"Yeah…" Kim acknowledged as she stared into those fascinating green eyes only inches from her own. Shego was right. And she'd all but told Shego exactly how to manipulate her into doing it. "But just because you can play me…"

Dropping beneath Shego's arms, Kim pushed herself forward, slamming into Shego's center of gravity so low that the woman was scooped onto Kim's back in an upside down fireman's carry! With a whoop of defiance, Kim flipped the still stunned woman onto the sofa, where she stared up at the teenager's incredibly smug expression as Kim reveled in triumph "…doesn't mean you're going to end up on top!"

########

The sight that greeted Anna and Cyn as they came back in to the room was quite… unexpected.

It would be a question of semantics as to whether Kim and Shego were on the couch or not. Technically, Kim was lying across the top, but had apparently been thrown there from the back side, resulting in her being nearly upside down as she held off Shego's attempt to push her the rest of the way over onto the floor. Foiling Shego were Kim's hands and arms, each of which had Shego's corresponding appendages locked and checked in some kind of martial arts hold, and her legs, which were wrapped tightly around Shego's waist in a scissors grip so tight that the pale woman had been pulled halfway over on top of the redhead, both of them balanced so precariously that any further forward motion would flip Shego over her opponent and onto the floor. Both women's hair was in wild disarray and their muscles trembled as it seemed they had worked themselves into a position from which neither was able to push an advantage, nor retreat to a position of safety. But what made the whole thing so bizarre was that both Kim and Shego were LAUGHING!

"Are… uh… We interrupting something?" Anna asked, her eyes as huge as saucers.

Not wanting to take her eyes off her adversary, Kim fielded only the briefest of glances to Anna, but there was no mistaking the meaning of that tight, pleased grin.

"I think we're gonna do it." Kim giggled.

"But we'll have to shoot in a gym," Shego added, "Someplace with a LOT of padding."

"Fireproof padding!"

"And weapons!"

Anna continued to watch, stunned, as the two intertwined women fell over as a unit, landing in a sprawl on the floor. Could human bodies really bend in those positions?

"Oh God, I've missed that," Shego cackled through a mouthful of her own tangled hair. Kim's response was just a hysterical sputtering, snorting so hard that she was unable to form a single coherent syllable.

"So…" Cyn whispered into Anna's ear. "Do you want me to get the contracts or go make us some popcorn?"

Yes, Anna thought. This was going to be one hell of a photo shoot.


	4. Chapter 4

_Just an aside here to thank all the folks who've been "fav"ing this story. For the record, this story and its predecessor grew from thinking about the kind of pressures our modern culture is putting on young celebrities, and musing about the varied and often rocky paths of a number of young women who coincidentally share an age and Disney background with Kim were of particular inspiration… It just seemed hard to ignore the idea that, in the real world, someone like Kim Possible (or the younger Shego) would find it almost impossible not to become some kind of celebrity, whether she wanted to or not._

_**Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Frugal Lucre, Wade Load, Bonnie Rockwaller, Senor Senior Sr. & Jr., Dr. Director and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context is probably considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein and her trusty assistant Cynthia ARE original to this manuscript, but if you want to use them for your own dastardly purposes, go right ahead… Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs._

_Finally, the reasons for the M rating begin here. Strap in and get ready._

_#######_

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 4

Kim leaned back and tired to concentrate on the terms of the proposed contract as Anna and Cyn explained them. The mission last night had really worn her down, she wasn't exactly sure when her last "real" meal had been and the presence of Shego beside her was almost agonizingly distracting. Still, she knew this was important and tried to focus on the paper and what Anna was saying. Last year Kim had been ready to essentially cede the rights to the final image from their shoot to the city of Middleton in perpetuity… what Anna had told her the industry called a "buy out." Anna, however, had made a number of suggestions that the young woman quickly seen the logic of once they were properly explained. Per the revised contract she had ultimately signed, Kim and Anna would jointly reclaim the rights to the photo in three years. Kim suspected that she might just turn around and re-license it to the city of Middleton again, but the way the clause renewed meant that if Kim ever wanted to retire the image, she had that option. Anna had also told her that it could turn into a respectable amount of income in future royalties, which was a hard thing for Kim to conceive… she was used to pictures of her being taken by reporters for TV and newspaper, and had never really thought about the legal rights she actually had concerning her physical image.

Shego was talking about her own lawyers reviewing the document. _Lawyers_, as in plural. Of course, as a criminal her rival would have had to deal with legal professionals on a regular basis, but Kim was quickly becoming aware that depending on Global Justice and what Wade dug up on the internet wasn't going to suffice if she wanted to keep on her current path… and she half suspected that Dr. Director was intentionally steering her into a situation where being able to depend on GJ's legal staff (and its agents' frequent immunity from prosecution) would seem to be her best option. Why did it seem like everyone was always working an angle?

She stifled another yawn and tried to take everything she was being spoon-fed in. She was all too aware that Anna was being extremely detailed in her explanations and that it was primarily for her benefit. For this shoot, the contract Anna had proposed would set things up so that both Kim and Shego would have a considerable level of control over the way their images would ultimately be used and exploited. To begin with, although Anna would join the two as the legal "author" of the images, either of the proposed models would have the option to mark ANY image they were unhappy with as "not for publication." At the end of the shoot, a set of fourteen images… one for each month, a cover and a centerfold… would be chosen for the calendar and the publisher, ie: the "4-city Restoration Project" would be granted an exclusive three year license for printing rights. In addition, Cyn would be documenting the entire "behind the scenes" process with a smaller format camera and a selection of those photos would be made available as part of the package for the purposes of promotion. All of the remaining images would then go back into a master pool that could not be licensed for print for a period of 12 months but COULD be exhibited. As each new year cycled, additional photos could be pulled from the pool… for the purpose of creating a new calendar, if they chose, or to be used in another format. It seemed to Kim that Anna thought they were going to generate a lot of pictures to choose from. She really hoped that they… well, Kim herself specifically… wasn't going to disappoint the photographer. The concept that she and Shego had tentatively come up with still seemed rather hazy and undeveloped, and she had gotten the impression Anna really didn't understand exactly what they were talking about.

On the other side of the desk, Anna kept her voice calm and even as she explained each clause, but her mind was running a mile a minute as she tried to figure out how she was going to make this work. The truth was, she WAS having trouble getting her head wrapped around the idea Kim and Shego had started to evolve. But that was probably, she admitted, because what she knew about martial arts wouldn't fill a 35mm film can. Kim had likened it to T'ai Chi, which Anna did understand… or to be more correct, _T'ai Chi Chih_, as apparently the series of meditative and balancing exercises Anna was familiar with were actually a derivative of a greater defensive martial art called _T'ai Chi Chuan_. At that point Shego had told Kim to stop confusing Anna with extraneous detail and went on to explain in very simple terms that most martial arts could be thought of as an extreme form of dance. For every move, there were a given set of counter moves, to which there would then be additional counter-counters, and so on, all of which had been refined through untold repetitions until they reached their purest and most perfect form. Essentially, what Kim and Shego thought would be interesting would be to find the combinations of moves that Anna thought most photogenic and then render them in a suitably artsy-fartsy faction.

Kim had then told Shego that "Artsy-Fartsy" probably wasn't a very flattering way to describe what Anna did for a living, and Shego had replied that if Anna didn't know the difference between _T'ai Chi Chi_ and _T'ai Chi Chuan_, why was Shego expected to know what the appropriate arty-fartsy term was? Personally, Anna thought Shego probably did know other words she could have used besides artsy-fartsy… she seemed entirely too literate otherwise… but that the green woman was repeatedly using the term simply because she knew it irked Kim.

Shego, Anna made a mental note, was a compulsive button pusher. Especially when it came to a certain Ms. Possible. Anna had anticipated a certain level of stiff formality and perhaps even open hostility between the two, given that her advance brief was that they had been at constant odds and bitter adversaries for several years before the Lowardian Invasion and Shego's subsequent unilateral pardon. Apparently that information wasn't quite complete, as it was almost more like having to referee a pair of sisters than professional rivals… and it seemed that the more physically they were engaged, the more the barriers came down. At the moment, listening to her explain the contract, they were both pretending to be quite prim and proper, but when Anna had interrupted the two wrestling over the couch, they had actually brought back memories of her eight year old self, her younger brother and their many duels over the sandbox.

"Okay," Anna had finally interrupted the ongoing artsy-fartsy debate, which had degenerated to the "did not!" "did too!" level. "So what you're going to do is find poses that represent these moves, right?"

"Nope," Shego replied. "We're really gonna beat the crap out of each other."

"Well, not exactly," Kim corrected, scowling at her evilly smiling counterpart. "Though some of that will probably happen accidentally. The basic idea is that we'd go in restricting ourselves to using forms that are perfectly complimentary… normally the idea is to throw off your opponent, but we'd actually be playing to extend the contest rather than bring it to a quick conclusion."

"Which is something we may have done a few times in the past…" Shego grinned.

"Maybe once or twice," Kim agreed with a slight hint of a blush. "We've got to work out which forms we want to focus on and then we can show you a rough idea, but I think capturing the actual motion is going to be a big part of it."

Kim looked quickly at the green woman to see if there were any side comments about to be interjected, but Shego simply nodded to go on.

"I think what Shego and I are both seeing," Kim expounded, "Is that there's a beauty in the pattern of the two combatants who are perfectly matched that we'd like to explore visually."

"The interplay of form, footwork and pose, driven and compounded by the mathematics of the given counters," Shego nodded, giving proof to Anna's suspicions that her artsy-fartsy-ing comments had indeed been an artifice to get a rise out of Kim. "We won't be TRYING to hurt each other…"

"But unless we give it our all, it won't be an accurate portrayal of the true essence and strength of each form," Kim concluded.

The two women grinned at each other as if they had been talking about flower arrangement rather than attempting to toss each other around a room like rag dolls. Anna was beginning to suspect they were both just a little unbalanced, but had agreed to wait until she could physically see what they were proposing. That said, she anticipated that she'd have to find some ways to manipulate them into doing some more conventional posing as well. The key thing right now was to for the three of them to establish a practical working relationship, and then to slowly ease Kim and Shego into feeling more comfortable with the idea of working with each other as partners rather than opponents. For the moment, the fact that they were more comfortable with the idea of using each other as sparring partners than anything else was just a convenient place to start. Anna and Cyn already had a little side bet running on exactly how long it would finally take to hit that level, but there was no doubt that the basic chemistry was already in the mix. Anna already had her heart set on the end result of their labors being an art book, however she wasn't about to tell her two models that… not quite yet. It was going to take a LOT of hours, pictures and work to achieve that goal, and she'd have to see how this idea the two young women were proposing was going to happen before she made definitive plans. And then there was this plasma of Shego's… Anna had the beginnings of an idea concerning that, using both strobes and timed exposures… That could be truly amazing…

########

Glancing sideways, Shego noticed Kim sneaking in another little side-yawn. She'd counted at least seven since the girl had finished decimating the huge collection of chips, and with the lack of further forage, the redhead's energy level now seemed to be dropping rapidly. She hadn't remembered Kimmie tiring so quickly before, but it didn't take a physician to deduce that Kim had been running herself on the ragged edge. No doubt she'd been out on another of her missions and hadn't had a chance to recharge her batteries yet, and if she really had moved out of her parent's home, it was likely that there was nobody around to keep her innate inclination to always keep charging forward in check. Over time, that could push even the healthiest person into a state of total physical collapse.

Shego remembered that feeling all too well. After quitting Team Go, she'd wandered around for a while… as invisibly as someone who was the color of mold could. These days, Shego didn't care if people stared at her or not… she had the money, power and confidence to tell them to go stuff themselves, and the experience to tell them exactly how far to stuff it up. But back then, until she'd figured out how to make the contacts she had to make, until the underworld figures she was cozying up were finally convinced it wasn't all some big set up, being identified as a former superhero on the run from the law could have been a death sentence. She'd been on the move almost constantly, and although there had been a few fairly lean periods in her life since then, she'd always remember that sheer bone-tired exhaustion induced by prolonged periods of irregular sleeping patterns and meals as being just about the lowest she had ever felt, physically and emotionally, in her entire life.

And she was really starting to pick up that vibe from Kim. As the four of them had started trying to work out a plan for this calendar shoot, Shego had noted the apparent lack of variation in outside commitments on Kim's part… it seemed to be mission, mission, missions. No "I have to work that night" or "That interferes with my Advanced physics class." Not even a "Oh, that's the night Ron and I have a date" or "My mom asked me over." Just "If I don't have a mission…" The only person she'd even bothered to call so far was her web guy… his name was Wade, not Nerdlinger, Shego reminded herself… and he'd simply said to send him the final dates.

When she clearly heard Kim's stomach rumbling, for the third time, she decided that she couldn't wait to dig around for answers later. She was going to have her personal lawyers go over the photographer's proposed contract anyway, but as far as she could see, the woman was being damn generous… with both her terms and her advice.

"Anna," She interrupted the photographer. "I know you're probably still on California time, but its way past my lunch. Do you mind if we take a break?"

"Oh," Anna was instantly contrite. "I hadn't realized… we ate right before you got here."

"Closed down the breakfast buffet," Cyn confirmed with a shake of her blonde head. "Do you want to order room service?"

"Nah," Shego shook her head politely. "There's a soup and sandwich place around the corner. It'll be faster, cheaper and probably fresher." She included all three other women in her subsequent head nod. "Do you guys want to come?"

Shego's real attention was on Kim, who looked relieved someone else had brought the subject up, so as a result, she missed the little look that was exchanged between Anna and Cyn.

"Oh, I think we're okay," Anna smiled. "Why don't you two go talk about the form stuff and I'll get started calling the equipment houses here in town to find out what's available. It sounds like we might be needing a lot of high powered strobes and I'd rather get them locally than ship them out from the coast."

Shego nodded thoughtfully. "You might want to check out the firms in Go City as well. There's a lot more media and print production there than in Middleton…"

"But they do have a lot of state of the art imaging gear at the Space Center," Kim yawned. "'scuse me. I imagine we can pull some strings to borrow it."

"Damnit Princess," Shego growled as she stood and mock-glared at the shorter girl. "Why do you always have to keep trying to top me?"

"Who says I have to TRY?" Kim chirped back, standing with a defiant pose. "Come on, let's go eat."

Anna had to hold back an explosive guffaw as Shego gave she and Cyn an exaggeratedly exasperated roll of the eyes before turning to follow the rapidly retreating redhead's backside out the door. Yep, the chemistry was definitely brewing… Not that that was all that surprising. Anna was beginning to wonder if ANYONE could actually hate Kim Possible.

######

"FUCK KIM POSSIBLE!" Bonnie Rockwaller screamed, throwing the remnants of her Dixie Stinger at the swimming pool and rubbing her itching crotch with frustration. People were staring at her as a dozen attendants ran to gather up the ice and plastic glass… everyone knew not to give Bonnie anything glass within a thousand feet of the pool or beach… but the stewing former cheerleader didn't give a damn as she snuck her fingers inside the tiny black triangle of material and scratched the irritation again. The goddamn rash was driving her crazy, but she wasn't about to go to the hotel doctor yet. Like everyone else on the goddamn island, he was in the direct pay of Senor Senior Sr., and while Junior might be oblivious to the fact that she'd slept with half the damn staff, his father was probably tracking her progress through the pool boys and waiters with an itemized spread sheet.

Spread sheet. Ha! She'd spread 'em alright. Or maybe he was making a _fur _pie chart… That pun was almost as rich as the insufferable old fart himself. Bonnie knew he was just waiting for her to make that final mistake… what she wasn't sure of is what he'd want when it happened. Visions of her dead, crab-eaten body rolling in the rocky surf on the far side of the island danced in the back of her mind, and a convulsive shudder ran up her spine. What the hell had she been thinking, running off with the son of a supervillain? And whose fault had it been that they'd even met? Kim Possible's of course!

It had all happened so quickly. When she'd first met the moderately handsome, incredibly buff and just plain filthy stinking rich Senor Senior Junior, she'd thought she'd found her one stop gold pass ticket to fame, fortune and constant sexual satisfaction. And by the time she'd discovered the effect all the steroids had had on Junior's junior, she'd been willing to put up with the temporary loss of the latter in order to take the express lane to the two former. Before she knew it, she'd had an agent, and the calendar opportunity last year had seemed like the perfect opportunity to show up Cunt Possible once and for all.

Except it hadn't happened that way. The fucking bitch had not only done it to her again and stole the spotlight, but she'd done it so effectively that it made everything Bonnie had worked so hard for look like just another attempt to catch a ride on the redhead's famous Teflon ass. Bonnie had done a half-dozen photo-shoots since, but the acting career she'd been aiming for had seemed stalled before it had even begun. How could she have been idiotic enough to think that the moron who'd been handling Junior's "singing" contracts was going to get her into the big time? The ass had even managed to screw up the few things that might have gone right. "Don't worry about the interview, Bon," he'd cooed. "Just take two of these and it'll be over before you know it."

In retrospect, maybe he'd been talking about her chances as an actress.

She couldn't believe she'd agreed to do what was basically a soft-core porno… though the trades were making it sound a lot worse. God. It wasn't like the whole world didn't already know that she was no stranger to having unfamiliar genitals in her mouth, but the idea that her sisters would probably be watching it, critiquing it, LAUGHING, was too much to handle. In a way, she was almost glad her parents had effectively disowned her. She hadn't been able to look them in the eyes for months, didn't know if she ever could again. Why the hell had she been so brutally honest in what she'd told the ghost writer who wrote her book? Why hadn't she cut more out of the final draft? Had she really expected anyone to understand what she'd endured?

Whatever she'd been thinking, she'd obviously been wrong. At least the book had sold well, even if she'd had to use the bitch's name to sell it. That had led to a development deal with an admittedly shady studio, and ultimately to the script she'd approved. The part she'd agreed to do. Even though the character of "Bonnie" had been deleted after the third draft.

She abruptly became aware that tears were streaming down her face, something her $1,600.00 designer sunglasses couldn't hide. She wanted another drink and the cabana boys seemed to be interested in serving everyone else except her. The paying customers. Not the owner's son's slut girlfriend.

And now this rash. God, she hoped it was a reaction to the dye and not something that would require a shot. Not that she didn't almost wish she HAD something nasty and infectious. Last night's humiliation had been the worst in the ongoing trainwreck of her life; the final degradation that had sent her careening into this all morning drinking binge.

Because it had turned out that Junior COULD get it up. He could get it up just fine when Bonnie's pubes were dyed a brilliant cherry crimson and she wore the matching scarlet wig. And on that thought, the rage that had been building, the tortured agony that had been straining beneath the chains forged by the pills and alcohol finally exploded.

Last night she hadn't been fucked by Kim Possible.

Last night she'd been fucked AS Kim Possible!

"FUCK!" she screamed, her chair slamming to the ground behind her with a grating squeal of metal on concrete as she staggered to her feet in a desperate quest to find another bottle.

She never noticed the piece of ice the pool boys had missed. Not until all she could see was the blue Mediterranean sky as she flewl backwards. She did hear the sickening crack as her head impacted with the edge of the pool…

And then all was silent as she sank slowly beneath the crystal clear waters, trailing a long, hairlike stream of red.


	5. Chapter 5

**Legal stuff:** Kim Possible, Shego, Dr. Draken/Drew Lipski, Wade Load, James Possible, Bonnie Rockwaller, Senor Senior Sr. & Jr., Dr. Director and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context is probably considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein and her trusty assistant Cynthia ARE original to this manuscript, but if you want to use them for your own dastardly purposes, go right ahead… Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs.

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 5

She rose from the darkness with the agonizing sensation chlorine pouring through her lungs. A scream, born of the terrifying certainty of knowing that she was about to die erupted inside her… but was silenced, ripped from her throat before her waking horror could give it birth. Something… something awful, something alien… blocked the way: a plastic serrated serpent winding its way down through the clamped open rictus grin of her mouth as it thrust down into the core of her body.

Forcing the air in.

Pulling the air out.

She was awake.

And the nightmare had just begun.

####

Shego looked across the elevator car as she and Kim shared the long ride down. What was it about these things that made everybody act as if they'd just been to a funeral? That made the words you wanted to say bottle up inside you? Shego could see the questions brimming behind Kim's eyes… and for that matter, she had dozens of her own she wanted to ask in return… but instead of speaking, they simply alternated between watching the floor indicator display count down and silent looks that never quite evolved into sentences. Ironic. Their whole universe had shrunk down to a tiny enclosed space that held just the two of them, and yet there still seemed to be some invisible wall that kept them separated.

This is so weird, the pale woman thought. We're going to be shooting a calendar together, but the only way we can figure out to communicate is to hit each other. I wonder if that freaks her out as much as it does me?

And then the door opened at the lobby level, and their world hit a reset button.

"So where's this restaurant?" Kim asked, starting towards the main entrance at a brisk pace. She'd barely taken seven steps in that direction, however, before she braked suddenly, the athletic muscles in her legs locking in a rippling state of alarm.

Pulling up even with Kim, Shego followed the other girl's eye-line through the wide glass doors and out to the main thoroughfare. Now what… Ah, that would be it. A large, older black sedan parked discretely across the street in the waiting zone… a vehicle so nondescript as to stand out like a sore thumb in the uber-trendy downtown area where the hotel was located. Two men in nondescript suits sat in the front seat, looking hot and irritated. Fortunately, from where they were, it would be almost impossible to see Kim and Shego yet.

Shego didn't need any further explanation. She was already turning as Kim did her own 180 and headed for the exit on the opposite side of the hotel. Good reflexes, Shego mused, but her Princess' lack of experience with this particular skill set was showing, as the door the redhead was aiming for went to the parking garage, the second most obvious point of exit.

Time for the master to share a few points.

"Hold up Pumpkin," Shego grinned tightly, cutting in front of Kim and motioning for the redhead to follow her instead. To her credit, while the younger girl looked perplexed, she did as indicated, falling in step behind her arch rival as she ducked back through the almost empty hotel bar area and into a set of swinging white double doors upon which the words "STAFF ONLY" had been clearly emblazoned in four inch high spray painted letters.

The luxurious wood veneers and plush carpeting of the public section of the hotel instantly gave way to utilitarian grey tile and battered white walls adorned with the black smudges of a million service cart collisions as they entered the maze of service tunnels that connected the bar, kitchen and, were they to take the branch to the left, eventually led to the rear access for the main ballrooms and conference areas. Rather than taking that route, which would ultimately make a full loop and redeposit them in the lobby, Shego instead followed the distant sound of clanking glass and metal, steering them to the true back of the building, past the outside prep area for the kitchens. Rounding a corner, they encountered the first employees… two busboys, breaking the fire code by sneaking a cigarette in an alcove filled with huge rolling racks of glasses and goblets in plastic shelves and stacks of folded banquet tables. Catching sight of the two women, the kitchen help looked up in alarm as they approached.

Shego merely pulled out her wallet and briefly snapped it open. Had they looked really hard, the busboys might have noticed that the gold badge inside actually read "Junior G-Man," but they were too busy trying to hide their illegal smokes.

"Health Inspector," Shego scowled, trying to sound as official as someone wearing only a T-shirt, shorts and flip flops could. "Where's the damn loading dock?"

Busboy A made a wild motion in the general direction of "beyond the kitchen" and Shego snarled past, squaring her shoulders as if SOMEONE was about to receive a royal ass ripping. She didn't have to look back to see that Kim was still hovering right behind her… she could hear her barely suppressed giggle.

And then they were on the dock. The actual loading area was sunk beneath street level, but it was a quick hop down eight steps and then a short incline to the open loading door. If there was a security guard on duty, he certainly wasn't here… either the odiously ripe stench from the huge garbage dumpster that serviced the restaurant had driven him away or the busboys had somehow managed to warn him that he was expecting company. Probably the former.

"So," Shego asked, once she was sure they were alone and there were no stray video cameras in their direct ling of view. "Were those guys we need to kill or just avoid?"

"Avoid. Paparazzi." Kim replied, a smile on her face despite her obvious irritation with having to make a detour. Apparently she had rather enjoyed their little jaunt through service land. Then, as an afterthought: "Are we allowed to kill them in this state?"

"Out of season," Shego deadpanned, marveling at the fire that was burning behind the other woman's eyes. "And when did you get so bloodthirsty? Still, at least you're finally starting to learn to keep your eyes open and watch your exits. I was thinking about checking in here myself, but the front of the building is way too open to sniper fire to suit me."

"Snipers?" Kim seemed disbelieving. "You think someone would really try to shoot you in broad daylight?"

"No Pumpkin," Shego sighed, incredulous that the teenage… young woman still didn't get the big picture. "I think they'd shoot you."

####

Two minutes and a quick wary strut down the less traveled back street later, they were being seated in the restaurant Shego had spotted. This area had been renovated heavily in the wake of the Lowardians and the structure had once been the bottom floor of an old retail store. As a result, the floorplan had an extremely convoluted layout with… and Kim had followed Shego's subtle finger pointing to see each… five different possible avenues of exit. Better yet, the table they were sitting at was difficult to see into from outside, and the section had been closed off until Shego had specifically requested to sit there. As a result, they had what was essentially a private dining area.

Ideal for a nice long talk… if you knew what to say.

Kim scanned down the menu and tried to remember how much cash she actually had on her… U.S. currency, that is, as she also had a random collection of yen, pesos and euros cluttering her thin wallet. She was, as usual, almost broke, so she ignored the far more appetizing sounding entrées and specials of the day, reluctantly selecting the largest, cheapest sandwich she could find and… after a bit of deliberation… an ice tea. Normally she would have made do with water, but she was on fumes at this point and really needed the caffeine.

Shego, on the other hand, ordered a hot tea, a large fruit salad, a veggie wrap, a side of black beans and a fruit and yogurt smoothie.

Once the ordering was done and the waitress had departed, Kim looked at Shego, who seemed to be trying to figure out how to start a conversation.

This, I can do, Kim thought. I'm the one who's supposed to have the wonderful personality.

"So where have you been?" She asked. Damn, she hoped that what had mean to be a simple question hadn't come out sounding like a demand.

Shego fortunately took it like the opening gambit it was and smiled.

"Around. Just because Global Justice said I had a worldwide pardon didn't make it so. I had a lot of loose ends to tie up." Exactly what those loose ends were she obviously wasn't going to volunteer.

Kim nodded acceptance of that fact and it was Shego's turn to go fish.

"So how's the bu… boyfriend?" The ex-hero finally ventured.

"Ron's fine." Kim sighed, hoping it was true. "He's in Japan. At school."

Oh what the hell, might as well tell her… she'll figure it out eventually.

"And he's not my boyfriend anymore."

"Oh." Kim couldn't quite read Shego's first quick glimmer of expression, but it was quickly replaced by the more usual mask of sympathy. Why did people react that way? It wasn't as if Ron had died! "I'm sorry Princess. He was a nice guy."

"He IS a nice guy," Kim smiled as she corrected the tense, genuinely glad that Shego's sentiments seemed authentic. "It was a mutual decision. We're still best friends." _'Who haven't talked in nearly two weeks,'_ Kim's subconscious added guiltily. _Make a note. Call Ron. Call Monique._

"Ah… well, that's good," Shego was saying. "I used to think he was just dead weight holding you back, but I was obviously way wrong."

"Yeah, Ron's like that. Never quite what he seems." Kim fumbled for a quick segue, "So uh… you and Drakken?"

Shego blinked. "Me and Drakken what?"

"Uh… well, you know. Still… together?"

"Are you kidding?" Shego glowered. "He's working for Dr. Director these days… doing God knows what, but he's got a dozen little toadies that think he can crap gold bricks. What's he need with a sarcastic bodyguard when he's got GJ? The second he got that pardon, I got my notice. Four years of mostly loyal service and I'm out on my can."

Fortunately, the awkward moment of silence that followed was broken by the arrival of their drinks.

"Besides," Shego added, watching the waitress' backside disappear around the corner. "He can't afford me now anyway. Not that he ever could, but I had profit participation. If he'd ever actually taken over the world, I'd have got Australia."

"Australia?" Kim wasn't sure if Shego was being flippant or not. "Seriously Shego?"

"No, seriously is Motor Ed," The green woman again demonstrated a gift for impressions as she briefly slid into the tones of the mullet-headed mechanic… "And to be honest, I stole the idea from Superman. Had the big blue doofus put it right in the contract and he never even got the joke. How can you claim to be serious about ruling the world if you haven't studied Lex Luthor?"

"I was never quite sure if he was serious," Kim ventured. She wasn't certain how much Shego knew about Drakken, aka Drew Lipski, and his prior relationship with Kim's father, but the younger Possible had always suspected there was a lot more going on underneath than she'd been able to learn.

"Some days he was, some days he wasn't," Shego shrugged. "And when he was off his meds…" Her jade shoulders shuddered. "Look, I really don't want to talk about Drewbie, okay?"

Kim waited as Shego sucked in a long, calming breath. After a few seconds the familiar smirk crept back onto her beautiful pale face. "Aren't we supposed to be talking about you and me getting naked, cupcake?"

"Uh… Yeah… about the shoot," Kim replied cautiously. She hadn't failed to note that Shego's little joke hadn't quite reached her eyes. "Did you have any idea as to which forms you wanted to start with?"

Shego pursed her lips thoughtfully. "It would probably help if I knew what forms you're strongest in."

Yes, Kim thought, we've always been pretty cagey about letting the other know exactly where our strong and weak points were. Well, if there's going to be any trust…

"I have various levels of master status in 21 forms, reasonably skilled in another 8." She then proceeded to list them, beginning with Akido through the various Chinese forms and ending with Krav Maga and Tae Kwon Do, then went on to briefly detail her recent interests in weapons forms like Chanbara, Eskrima and Kuk Sool Won.

"Damn Princess," Shego laughed, "That's one bizarre conglomeration, and I know I've seen you use a few you didn't mention. And where the hell did a kid your age pick up Krav Maga anyway?"

At last they were on common ground! Kim grinned as she told the other woman how she had picked up the Israeli combat technique when some instructors toured the Jewish Community Center Ron's family attended. Ron had dutifully gone with her for a few lessons, but she'd stuck with it and had picked up the rest in bits and pieces over the years... mostly sitting in at police departments.

"That's kind of the story of most of what I have," Kim admitted. "I like the whole IDEA of going to a school and learning one form all the way up, one at a time, but I'm too ADD. I tend to be studying several at a time and merging them into what I do."

"Well that helps explain why the counters I developed for you never stuck," Shego mused, then rattled off the 18 forms she felt were her strongest… Kim knew more disciplines, but Shego's ranking in the ones she knew tended to be higher, and like Kim she'd picked up a smattering of a lot of other systems. "And of course," the green woman finished, "I've got the glow-fu to top it all off."

"Yes, well there will be no plasma glazing of your fellow model," Kim returned. "You want to steal the shot, you do it with your other assets."

"Which I have in abundance," Shego smiled.

"Not surprising considering what you ordered."

"Yes, and speaking of which" Shego smirked, as the aforementioned food arrived. Looking at the server, she held up her hand, smoothly intercepting the sandwich Kim had ordered and substituting the fruit salad. "We'll need a second glass for the smoothie as well."

"WHAT?" Kim was mortified. Staring at the fruit where her sandwich should have been, she felt her face turning beet red as the waitress failed in completely stifling her smile.

"You already ate six bags of chips, Princess. That's a full days worth of carbs and salt right there," Shego scolded, as the waitress sensibly fled. "Get some vitamins and fiber inside you and then I'll let you have this preservative laced monstrosity you ordered."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Kim boiled over, sizzling. "My Mom?"

"No cupcake, I'm the woman you're going to be going head to head with until this project's over. Look at you! You're dead on your feet and it's just past 3. Tired people make mistakes Kimmie, and I don't want to accidentally snap your fool neck."

"So," Shego continued. "If we're going to do this, you're going to eat right, sleep well and keep your eye on the ball. Got it?"

Kim opened her mouth to argue…

"That's not a negotiable point, Princess. I'd say cut your missions back as well, but you'd probably rather gnaw off your left foot."

The truth of that stopped Kim short. Shego wasn't saying anything that others hadn't said… that somewhere deep down Kim knew was correct… her arch-foe was just putting a little more force of action behind her words than others had. Okay, a lot more. Still…

"And if I go off this little regimen of yours?" She challenged.

"YOUR regimen Kim. Not mine. If you really think you can't do it, we can call Anna right now and cancel. She'll probably only leap out of the penthouse window, but that's on your head. And if you fall off the wagon while we're shooting…" Shego's toothy grin had gone past predatory into fully carnivorous. "I'll make sure Anna gets some great shots of me spanking your bare candy little ass."

Kim wasn't sure which shook her more. The fact that Shego was actually making such a threat… or the weird leap that her own stomach did at her mental visualization of the implied action_. 'Jesus, am I into that kind of shit?'_

"Fine." She snorted, picking up a fork and stabbing an unfortunate slice of peach. "I can't believe I missed you."

.

Shego suppressed a jolt of surprise. What had Princess just mumbled?

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

Kim looked up at her with an irate expression, still chewing ferociously as she spoke. "I said I missed you. I also implied that I was crazy to have done so."

Shego swallowed back the misty warm expression that threatened to creep across her face. Her brothers had SAID that… but there hadn't been the depth of feeling she sensed in Kim's snarled admission. It felt… good.

Good to be appreciated.

"Yeah," She replied with what she hoped was the right level of matter of factness. "Well, I missed you too, Pumpkin."

Suspicion and disbelief staged a war for the redhead's face. Disbelief won. "Really?"

"Yeah really," Shego admitted. "You're not the only crazy one. I haven't had a decent fight since the Lowardians. If this calendar thing hadn't come up, I'd probably have shown up outside your place throwing rocks at the window."

"So," Kim's eyebrow arched archly. "You're saying you've been thinking about me… physically?"

"I've wished I had you around to hit on," Shego confessed. "You have to admit, when we go at it…"

"It's pretty incredible, yeah," Kim agreed, a nervous eagerness flickering in her eyes. An eagerness that was quickly blossoming into something else. "So do you…?"

"Uh huh," Shego licked her lips. _Oh yes..._ "Now?"

"Yeah," Kim was already fishing in her wallet. "Now."

"Keep eating while I get the bill and a to-go box," Shego was already waving for the waitress. "You'll need the energy."

They left way too big a tip on the table, but they didn't want to wait for the correct change.

#####

"Was that Kim?" Anna looked up as Cyn put the phone back on the table with a sly smile.

"Yep." Cyn nodded, canary feathers dangling from her lips. "And Shego. They said they were going to go find a _'dojo.'_"

#####

"And the repercussions of the injury?" The dark skinned man's words were appropriate for voicing concern, but the tone was curiously cold. Unaffected.

The old doctor looked at his employer with worried eyes. He should have retired from medicine years ago, but the offer to live out the last of his days on this island paradise had been too tempting. Now he was trapped here forever, having seen things in the place of beauty that would haunt him into his next life.

"Her motor functions should be unimpaired," The physician replied carefully. "The structural damage to the head and skull… will take longer to heal, but it all seems to be well within our capability to handle here. Actually, it is the results of the asphyxiation that worry me the most."

The man's eyes narrowed in warning, but the doctor found himself compelled to speak.

"How could you let her lie on the bottom of that pool so long? Had she been pulled out immediately, her chances would have been greatly improved." The doctor could not stop himself, he had seen the blue skin of the body as it was brought in, had fought valiantly to force the spark of life back into the girl's dying corpse before it could escape. And because he had won her back from the brink, he could not let this girl go, not now.

The other man's eyes narrowed, hard and cruel. "She was unfaithful. There was a time when such a sin would have been rewarded with instant death."

"But she will not die today," The doctor was forceful. "Not today."

Finally, the other man's eyes softened. Somewhat.

"No, not today." And then, as if he had not just discussed the disposal of a young woman's life as casually as one would discard a Kleenex. "So, the drowning. What will it have done?"

"It is hard to say," the doctor admitted. "I do not have the equipment to make a full diagnosis and you have forbidden an evacuation to the mainland. Brain damage is possible. Seizures. We'll know more when she awakes, but I find it hard to imagine that there wouldn't be some forms of post-traumatic distress disorder."

The man looked thoughtful, but the doctor realized with relief that he had won this second battle for the girl's life. He had truly feared that she would become just one more of the lovely young tourists who had disappeared forever from this part of the Mediterranean.

"Very well," his employer finally decided. "Summon me when she starts to wake… And" he raised one finger with deadly meaning. "No one is to speak to her before I do. Not even you."

"Yes, Senor Senior," the Doctor vowed, glad to have both served out his Hippocratic oath and survived one more day.

###

She rose again from the well in which she had been drowning. Everything was blurry, out of focus.

But the air moved in and out of her lungs with strong, even breaths. Her head ached but her body, though torn, felt firm and strong. And she felt… as if she had been sleeping for a very, very long time. So long ago that she could not even remember getting in this bed.

She could not even remember WHY she was in this bed.

The foggy veil that had obscured her vision lifted… it was just a curtain it seemed, made of a filmy translucent plastic dangling a few inches above her head. Until just this second, however, she had not been able to see the edges.

A man she did not know looked down at her. A dark skinned man. Handsome, if almost arrogantly so, with a cruel turn of his lips.

"I…" She could speak! But then the true horror came rushing in. Tears filled her eyes as the space where there should have been love and peace and… and anything… anything at all… denied her entrance.

The man saw her shock, her terror, yet he was strangely composed.

"My dear," he asked in an accent that seemed thick even if she did not recognize it. "What is it that brings you such grief?"

How could she answer? How could she describe the complete and total void within her?

"Who…" she heard her own voice tremble, and it was as if she had never heard it before. It was as she had never heard ANYTHING before!

"WHO AM I?" She screamed, but the answer wouldn't come. She didn't know! She didn't know!

The man restrained her. Held her gently. Soothed her fears as best he could.

And then the man, whose name she would re-learn was Senor Senior Jr. smiled at her, and told her the most important words she would ever hear:

"Your name, my dearest, is Kim Possible."

And the woman who had been Bonnie Rockwaller clutched the identity she had been given, and gave her thanks to God.


	6. Chapter 6

A quick thanks to all those who've sent reviews and favs; they are much appreciated. Just as a personal aside, I'm getting a number of comments about someone actually doing the calendar, so I thought I'd mention that when I'm visualizing what the characters look like at this point in time, I keep flashing to Craig Rousseau's brilliant alternate character designs that can be seen at . A little more mature, a little more real, but still entirely KP. If only there was a Bonnie...

**Legal stuff:** Kim Possible, Shego, Bonnie Rockwaller, Senor Senior Sr. & Jr., Dr. Director and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context is probably considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein and her trusty assistant Cynthia ARE original to this manuscript, but if you want to use them for your own dastardly purposes, go right ahead… Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs.

And now, back to the drama…

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 6

"God… That was incredible," Kim sighed, the afterglow on her face as brilliant as the sun. She half-slid, half-rolled her sweat drenched body onto her side and, with a slow pelvic thrust, wiggled slowly closer to Shego. Reaching out with one small hand, she tentatively touched the emerald woman's shoulder, her eyes glittering and filled with wonder as she saw a matching glowing expression in the pale features looking back at her. "I never imagined it could be like that."

"You and me both Princess," Shego exulted, staring at the smaller girl lying on the mattress beside her with a dreamy smile. She'd never believed any human being could have given her that much pleasure, but… apparently anything really was Possible for this strange little creature… "How long have we been going at it anyway?"

"A little over three and a half hours," Anna informed them from her position on the bleacher of the police gym, where she and Cyn had been watching the sparring match in what could only be described as slack-jawed amazement. Although Anna professed no knowledge of martial arts, even she had seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon… but she'd always thought the elaborate aerial duels in that film had been the result of Hollywood magic. Or it's Chinese counterpart.

But this had been real.

Shego had described it as a sort of a dance, but until she'd actually seen it with her own eyes, she hadn't been able to imagine how it was like a ballet liberated from the force of gravity. How the two unbelievable women literally took command of all the space around them, using the walls and ceiling as often as the floor as they threw themselves at each other again and again. She'd seen Kim literally walk on the bottoms of Shego's feet, as the latter performed a dazzling series of kicks in mid-air. Had seen Shego's torso bend impossibly backwards, forming an almost perfect circle as she'd looped away to avoid a thrust by Kim that should, by all rights, have connected with her chin. And the way each hook, wing and clawlike shapes they'd made with their arms had been perfectly designed to catch another, allowing them to use their own inertia to continually throw each other higher and higher into the air, had been nothing short of… here was that word again… breathtaking. After seeing something so blatantly impossible, such a complete refutation of the logic of physics, even the iridescent wake of plasma that Shego trailed as she dove and swooped around the bronze comet that was Kim seemed to dim in comparison… and that was one of the most amazing things Anna had ever seen.

There weren't really words to describe it. She wasn't sure she could even photograph it.

But oh my God she was going to try!

Cyn summed it up more simply. "Can I go home and masturbate now?"

Oh yeah, it had also been profoundly erotic. That was also the general consensus of the growing crowd of off-duty officers who had wandered into the gym that Kim had managed to commandeer. Yes, apparently the Middleton PD was also on the long, long list of people who owed her favors, although who had ultimately done a favor for who might a matter for debate given the value of the entertainment provided. The original hour they'd requested had slowly stretched into nearly four as all other activity in the facility came to a halt and there'd been a huge, spontaneous burst of applause when the two fighters had finally hit their limit, dropping side by side to lay almost, but not quite, huddled together. Now more than a few of the male officers were looking a bit embarrassed… sweat pants not being the ideal garb to wear under certain types of stimulation… but Anna had a feeling that not a few of the female officers were in a similar state. Things would work out, as they say.

Lying on the blue mats in the center of the floor, Kim and Shego were profoundly unaware of the effects of their marathon session. They were entirely too physically sated to do more than bask in aftermath, their own physical exhaustion masked by the incredible joy they'd found in pushing their limits further than they'd ever dreamed of.

"Wow!" Kim gurgled softly, pulling open the top of her Gi to scratch her right breast idylly… stopping at the last second as she realized that the gesture risked completely exposing herself to the assembly of Middleton's finest. No sports bra Kim, she reminded herself. Belatedly she was aware that the thin white cotton Gi she'd borrowed was a loose fit at best, and the wide front and rippling folds had probably given their audience more than a few free peeks during their aerobatic display. Hell, as soaked with sweat as she was, the fabric was on the verge of becoming transparent wherever it clung to her skin… which was everywhere.

And, she realized, she really didn't give a damn. Nothing that felt that good could have anything to be ashamed of associated with it. It was perfection.

As was Shego. Looking at the woman in the black Gi, she knew this was what they had always felt simmering beneath the surface, the connecting thread that had bound them every time they went into combat against each other. It was the sure and absolute certainty that each was the others' complete and perfect complement. Alpha and Omega. Yin and Yang.

Red and Green.

Not that complement always meant opposite… far from it. She was quickly learning that she and Shego shared as much as they differed. They had a similar sense of humor for one. Kim smiled as she remembered their "escape" from the restaurant.

Not wanting to attract paparazzi to Anna's hotel, Kim had taken a GJ Chute to a garage at the edge of the downtown shopping district and walked the rest of the way. Shego's car… a rented high powered sports car with fantastic acceleration and black leather upholstery… had been parked upstairs in the hotel's garage, the exit for which would force them to cross directly in the path of the reporters they'd avoided earlier. With the itch they'd been desperate to scratch, the last thing either woman had wanted was to have to ditch a tail at the same time they were trying to find a gym. The solution had come almost immediately to Shego.

"Banana. Tailpipe." The green woman had whispered evilly as they peered around the corner to confirm that the stalkers were still where they had last seen them. Having watched _Beverly Hills Cop_ about a billion times, the evil glee in Kim's eyes had immediately matched the ex-villainess' own.

Sadly, they hadn't had an actual banana, but Shego willingly sacrificed the remains of her veggie wrap to the cause and Kim had proved surprisingly able to control her giggles as she stealthily managed to completely insert the overstuffed entrée into the sedan's exhaust system. Why had she never thought of this before?

Because I'm a good girl and Shego isn't, came the instant mental response.

But oh, how good it had felt to be just a little bad. Especially when they had driven slowly, tauntingly, past the paparazzi, bursting out in mad laughter as the sedan's engine shuddered and died. Kim had wanted to wave, but Shego had said that it was best to leave a little room for "plausible deniability."

Kim had a feeling she'd be picking up a lot of little "bad" habits in the near future, and as she lazed in the haze of elation induced by the incredible physical experience they'd shared, she was surprised at how little that distressed her.

An experience, that sadly, seemed to be over at last. Her hand fell to the mat as Shego pulled away and staggered awkwardly to her feet… and it was a perverse pride with which Kim watched the green goddess' knees actually trembling as she stood. _I did that to her.  
_

"Awww." Kim's disappointed sigh was real, but the attempted the puppy dog pout was half-hearted at best. The truth was that she'd probably fall on her own face if she tried to stand by herself. However, while Shego had been right about KIm's state of exhaustion, the green woman had severely underestimated the depth of the redhead's own pool of reserves. The bane of countless gym teachers and camp counselors over the years, she was like a coppertop battery that kept going and going and…

"Sorry Princess," Shego smiled, holding one hand down to assist the done-in dervish to her feet. "I gotta find a safe place to crash. Drakken had an old lair near here that might work, but even if it's clear, getting the security back on line'll take a couple of hours."

Kim, who been experiencing something not unlike an out of body experience as she was pulled into a standing posture, was rather surprised to hear her own voice responding:

"I've got an extra bed."

A beat. Had she really just said that?

"A room I mean," she amended hastily. "An extra room. With a bed."

Shego opened her mouth to decline the unexpected offer… but the words didn't come. What she finally managed was:

"I don't know Pumpkin… Like I said earlier, not everyone followed Global Justice's lead on the pardon thing and some of the holdouts have been pretty nasty."

"Two foot thick exterior walls, roof and floor, kevlar sheet between every interior wall and six inch polarized bulletproof lexan windows." Kim rattled off the specs she remembered. "Oh, and the front hallway's got an airlock."

Shego stared a Kim like she'd never seen her before.

"It's a Global Justice safe house," Kim admitted sheepishly. "Dr. Director's been letting me house sit."

"Well…" Shego wasn't quite sure what to say. A Global Justice safe house? Those things would stand up to anything short of direct hit by a cruise missile! But…

But she WAS tired…

"I… guess it can't hurt to take a look…"

"Sure," Kim nodded, even though she was suddenly feeling quite the opposite. The number of people who'd actually visited "her" place could be counted on the fingers of one hand… minus the thumb… and her housekeeping skills had suffered a bit in the isolation. Okay, to be honest, it was a disaster area and she just hoped the linens the previous residents had left in the closet would fit the bed in the second room originally intended for bodyguards. "No pressure."

By mutual assent they came to an unspoken agreement not to talk further on the subject and instead limped in companionable silence to the bleachers where Anna and Cyn were sitting, reviewing some test shots Anna had taken on her baby dSLR.

"So is that gonna work for you?" The jade woman asked.

"Um… wow," Cyn replied dreamily as Anna replied with a huge smile and a more straightforward "Yes."

"Of course," The photographer added wryly, "I have no idea how we're going to be able to photograph that, and it may take a few days to crack it… but where there's a will, there's a way."

"Fantastic," Kim grinned at Anna. "That'll give us some time for Dr. Shego here to get me back to my A-game." To Shego: "Yeah, you were right. My response times were way off. I'll do better."

Shego took the unexpected admission with a gracious nod. "Yeah… well, we both know I was rusty too, Princess. Hard to keep an edge without a Possible to pound on."

"Uh… okay," Anna replied, her mind boggling not just at the concept that the women both seemed to think what she'd just seen could be improved upon, but that they were so casual about it. "So, do either of you need a lift anywhere?"

Kim and Shego looked at each other warily.

"No, I think we're good." The green woman nodded.

"Yeah. Good." Kim agreed with a sideways smile.

####

This was weird.

They fought. One of them won or the other retreated. Later… in a few days or in a few weeks… they'd repeat the cycle.

They didn't stay around each other afterwards.

They didn't debate about who had done better, or where they'd made a mistake.

And they sure as hell didn't go into a locker room and take showers together.

Okay, not together. But at the same time. In stalls in the same room. Waaay more than close enough.

It didn't seem to bother the Princess. But then again, she'd been a cheerleader. They did the locker room thing.

For obvious reasons, Shego had been excluded from P.E. Not really fair to the other kids to have a glowing girl with super strength playing dodgeball with the normal kids.

Which she'd been fine with because… well… she looked funny. It was bad enough being at that awkward stage before the comet, but with her pale skin and green… parts, she'd become a walking freak show.

So Shego's experience had been training with her brothers, then disappearing into her own small part of the Go Team training center afterwards. She'd had no other girls to compare her own slow development with and, between that and all the other odd things that kept happening as her comet powers continued to manifest themselves, it had taken her a long time to become truly comfortable in her own skin.

Or at least, to learn how to pretend to be.

####

Kim found the ride to her house strange and awkward. Shego had gone… not silent again, but the easy camaraderie that they had shared during through the sparring session had been dissipating. The green woman would answer a direct question, but most of Kim's conversation tended to be met with simple nods and shrugs. Of course, Kim was aware that she, herself, was probably babbling to keep her mind off her own thoughts. Not that that was working either.

Had Shego noticed her furtive glance in the showers? The fact that Kim had even looked left her feeling uncomfortable enough. It wasn't like her, but… well… she was… curious. And while her quick sneak had confirmed her long running suspicion that Shego must wear black lipstick, had it been worth the resulting discomfiture?

But then again, it wasn't like Kim had been trying to hide anything herself. Much.

No, what really left her uneasy was whether it was the fact that they were going to someplace that was… at least technically… Kim's home turf, that had Shego on edge. The only time that had ever happened before was the whole Ms. Go thing, and Kim knew from her own experience that the mental residue left after coming out from under an attitudinator was a bizarre mélange of questionable memories and even more embarrassing "that wasn't me. I would NEVER do that's." If the memories were particularly repugnant, the conscious mind was bound to simply reject them altogether. Kim knew she had a few blanks she'd never been able to fill in, and Ron's recollection from his time as Zorpox was composed of more the holes than the Swiss cheese.

And that what was really at the core of the sinking feeling in Kim's stomach, because she had always suspected that Shego's time as Ms. Go must have ranked at the top of her own personal hells. Which, given that Kim's memories of that time were actually... very nice, was now like a knife doing a long, slow twist in her gut.

"It's the next turn," she told the ex-villainess as they finally hit the home stretch. "Halfway down the block is a big four car garage. I've got an extra opener I can give you when we get there, but I had Wade key it to the Kimmuncator as well."

"Right." Shego nodded, looking at lit up windows of DeeDee's MiniMegaMart, the small grocers and convenience store on the corner. Instead of continuing forward, she swing the wheel over sharply and pulled into a parallel parking space.

"Princess?" The green woman asked. "If I look in your pantry, is there going to be anything even vaguely healthy in there?"

"No." Kim admitted. "I don't have any cash, but if you want to get what you need, I'll pay you back later."

She was thinking about where she'd get the money when she was startled by the sensation of Shego pinching her cheek between two green fingers… exactly the same way her Nana did.

"We'll get what YOU need, Pumpkin," Shego mock-scolded as she stepped out of the car. "Remember the terms of our deal?"

"Uh, yeah…" Kim flushed, following.

To Kim's surprise, Shego didn't immediately go into the store. Instead she spent a minute looking down the block in both directions, seeming especially interested in the roof areas.

She's memorizing escape routes, Kim suddenly realized.

"Sorry," Shego apologized when she saw Kim waiting. "Force of habit."

####

Shego finished her initial threat estimate with a nod of satisfaction and pushed her way into the corner shop. She'd been trying to keep her eyes open, checking all the approach vectors coming in, but the redhead's constant chatter had been so distracting. She hoped that was just nerves so she wouldn't have to tape cupcake's mouth shut in order to get some sleep tonight.

Not that the process of doing that might not be an entertaining venture to attempt. She filed it on her long mental list of "things to do with a Possible." A list that was quite a bit shorter now than it had been that afternoon.

Looking around the self-declared MiniMegaMart, Shego was pleased to see that the small store really did resemble a miniature supermarket. There was a small deli-area and a surprisingly decent selection of dairy and produce. Tossing some fruit, vegetables and eggs in a plastic basket, she looked up at the hovering redhead who'd been about two steps behind her the whole time. "You have milk? Butter?"

"Yes to the first, no to the latter," Kim responded, clearly pushing the limits of her memory. "Um… but to be safe, better buy new milk."

"Right.' Shego took a quick look at the liquor section and decided against it. As beat as she was, she'd sleep well enough tonight no matter what.

"Okay, I'm done Princess," She nodded, leading the way to the front where she placed the small and slightly overpriced haul on the counter in front of the singular employee.

The burly man grudgingly looked up from his copy of REAL GUTZ and stood up. He was an interesting physical specimen: at least 280 lbs, most of it muscle, a black goatee beard and a tattoo of an Eagle holding a Trident on his left bicep.

"You DeeDee?" Shego asked, making light conversation as she took in the amazing assortment of lighters, novelties, sex aids and ammo on the wall behind the counter. Toss in some candy and you could have a pretty good night on the town with this anywhere in the world.

"Nah, she just owns the place," The man replied. "Evening, Miss Possible," He added, speaking past Shego to Kim. "No Toaster Tarts today?"

"Um, not today Jose," Kim once again flushed at Shego's accusing "look," giving the green woman a "_What? Lots of people probably buy them every day" _look in return. "This is my friend Shego. You'll probably be seeing her around for the next few weeks."

"Well, any friend of Miss Possible's…" The expression on Jose's face was just a wee tad suspicious. "Is a friend of Miss Possible's. You want paper, plastic or baby seal fur?"

"Plastic," Shego returned. She'd just realized she'd forgotten to ask Kim if she had trashbags, but for what they'd need immediately, the grocery bags would suffice. "Hey, you take Global charge?"

"Sure do." Jose took the blue card and finished running the transaction. "Thank you ma'am and please come again."

"No Prob," Shego smiled, handing the bags to Kim. "Say hi to DeeDee for me."

She was feeling just a little better as they got back in the car for the remaining half-block journey. A quick glance in the rear view mirror revealed that Jose was, indeed, already on the phone. Good.

At least some things were being properly taken care of.

The phone was already ringing in Kim's apartment when they arrived.


	7. Chapter 7

A few quick note. I'm new here at fanficnet and wasn't aware that links were in stories were blocked. For those who wondered about Craig Rousseau's alternate character designs, I've put the link in my profile. Thanks to Mad Possum for pointing that out as well as cross posting this story and CLIQUE CLIQUE to KPSlash Haven. All comments by all reviewers are greatly appreciated.

**Legal stuff:** Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load., Dr. Director, Will Du and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context is probably considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein and her trusty assistant Cynthia ARE original to this manuscript, but if you want to use them for your own dastardly purposes, go right ahead… Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs.

And now, back to the sturm und drang…

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 7

"oh shit oh shit oh shit," Kim was reciting the words like a mantra while simultaneously holding her thumb to the inner door's scanner touchpad, hitting the key code on her Kimmunicator and sending an apologetic look to Shego back over her shoulder. "I'll set a key-code for you in a minute, I promise, but that phone NEVER rings."

"Then it'll ring a little longer," Shego kept her voice even, attempting to present an image of calm. And then the inner door was open and Kim was bounding across the main living area like a rabbit, zig-zagging through the obstacle course of book piles, half-empty boxes, one fully empty laundry basket and finally over the enormous stuffed sofa as she leaped for the ancient black telephone mounted on the wall. A corded version, Shego noted approvingly, also observing that the air had a distinctly different scent from the air out in the hall. Whoever had originally set this facility up had had their technical requirements down pat.

Aesthetically…

"Yes. Yes." Kim was speaking into the receiver almost as quickly as she'd flown to it. Her agitation turned to surprise as she looked back up to Shego. "Yes, she's here. Why? No, I mean why do you need to know that?"

Shego, her course through the maze more hampered by the small rolling bag she was still dragging behind her, had finally maneuvered around enough of the books and boxes to be within touching distance of the now thoroughly irritated looking redhead again. With a sigh of resignation, she held out one neatly manicured hand.

"Let me speak to them, Kimmie."

"Um, yeah… okay," Kim responded with a look of bewilderment, but whether she was talking to the person on the phone or to Shego wasn't quite clear. She passed the phone over, however, temporarily trapping herself on the wrong side of the cord.

"To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking," Shego inquired with far more cordiality than she felt.

"I don't have to tell you that," the thin male voice on the other end replied coolly.

_Oh, it was going to be like THAT was it? _

"No," Shego shot back, struggling to keep her voice even. "Actually, according to the existing agreement between the FBI and GJ, unless it is critical to an undercover operation or preserving the identity of another agent involved in same, you are legally required to answer that question truthfully and to the best of your knowledge." Deep breath. "However, given your generally douche-baggy demeanor, I would suspect that I'm probably talking to one Will Du, Doctor Director's favorite toe-licker and errand boy. Is that correct, William?"

"Y… uh… that's Agent Du, Ms. Shego."

"Okay then, AGENT Du," Shego was glad it wasn't a video phone. Exposed fangs tended to go against the rational tone her voice was trying to present. "I'll try to be civil if you'll try not to be an odious smeg of slime. A bit of a stretch for both of us, but I'm game. Now how may I be of _assistance_?"

The agent on the other end paused for a second, then attempted to subtly deepen his voice. "I… WE just wanted you to know that we know you're there."

"D'oy!" Shego swallowed the _'No shit Sherlock'_ that almost escaped her lips. "Is that supposed to come as a surprise when I just asked your boy on the corner to call Doctor Director with that same bulletin? Helloooo! And why did I get you instead of her?"

"I'm the agent in charge of this… case." Du was now clearly struggling.

"Okay, agent in charge," Shego pounced. "We'll see how long THAT lasts after I tell your boss about all the glaring holes in this security net you've got running. I could have dropped Kimmie from a half dozen spots along this street, and aside from the grocer, I haven't seen a sign of any other living countermeasures."

"The…there are two agents in the apartment directly across the street," Du sputtered defensively. "And anyway…"

"And anyway, you just gave away that information! To someone with MY record!" Shego countered. "Why am I so not surprised Quantico fast-forwarded your ap to the GJ secretary pool? Newsflash! Kim invited me. I accepted. And if you have an issue with that, you should have explained the rules before you stuck her in this rathole."

"Ga…" On the other end of the line, Agent Du appeared to be strangling on his own wounded pride. It was obviously quite a mouthful to choke down.

"Enough. Done. If Betty wants to know anything else, she can call me on my cel. SHE has the number." With enough vitriol to stop a rhino in its tracks, Shego slammed the received back on the wall, simultaneously un-trapping a shell-shocked Kim.

"What…?" Kim managed to work out of her gapping mouth. "What…?"

And then finally, it came.

"I do NOT live in a RATHOLE!" Kim exploded in livid fury.

Okay, Shego had been a bit unkind in that respect. It was more like a hobbit-hole, really. But in retrospect, it was obvious that the extra material for the reinforced floors and ceilings had to go somewhere, so the actual airspace over their heads was unusually low… it would be highly optimistic to gauge it at seven feet at its highest point. But that's probably not what the Princess was thinking of. It had the cluttered, unorganized look of a place that was as much a stopping off point rather than an actual living area.

"I was speaking metaphorically, Kim!" Shego held up her hands and spoke reassuringly. Calmly. All the while wondering how long Kim had been living under these conditions. "They never told you they had you under surveillance, did they?"

Kim's face took on a gray, clouded look. "No." And then, after a second. "But you knew."

Shego kept up the smile, still projecting a feeling of calm. It worked with wild dogs… "In our business, paranoia is a useful attribute. You've lived in this city all your life, and that store's just something you walk past everyday. It's probably been there since you were in Junior High, right?"

"Yeah." Apparently Kim WAS calming down, because she had bent over and was starting to pick up some of the detritus off the floor. Shego decided this was definitely NOT the time to tell her that she shouldn't be bending over like that in those shorts.

"However, as someone who'd never been here before," Shego continued, turning to look at the odd pattern on the wall of the dining area instead. "What I saw was that it's also in a perfect position to see every single thing that goes up and down this street. Plus, there aren't many convenience stores that are staffed by ex-Navy SEALS in prime condition."

"DeeDee's" Kim groaned suddenly, dropping the books in her hand into the nearest box and slapping her head. "They weren't even subtle!"

"Yeah, well, at least you've got a good guy in that store clerk. Asking if you take Global Charge is a common code phrase and he never gave away a sign that he'd been made. If it ever comes down to it, he'll buy you a little time." _And let's not go into what 'baby harp seal" means right now…_

"But enough about that, Princess," Shego finished pouring the final touch of oil on the troubled the waters. "How about you give me a tour of this kingdom of yours?

###

Kim sat on the sofa, staring at the TV. It was off, but she didn't feel the need for any additional sensory stimulus right now. She'd been hit so many ways today that she was emotionally punch drunk. From the high of that magnificent sparring match to the low of discovering that Dr. Director's offer had come with some unexpected attachments… Will Fucking Du, no less! But what was even more galling that Shego had seen right through it. Kim knew she wasn't stupid… like her brothers, her IQ tested so high off the far edge of the bell curve that the numbers weren't even of statistical significance, giving just the vaguest indicator of what her potential might be… but IQ didn't directly translate into street smarts. She was sick and tired of being so damn gullible! Shego's bitter cynicism only made more and more sense as she got older, and Kim was beginning to wonder the day would come that she'd find herself saying to hell with the whole thing.

And then what? What the hell kind of future had she been building for herself? What kind of life? Kim rolled over on her side and stared into the blank space beyond the television. She'd never even been able to hold down a real job… was essentially living on hand-outs from an organization that scared the crap out of her…

She shook her head and forcibly willed herself to think about something else. If she let this negative feedback loop continue she could drop into depression for days. Move forward. As long as you move forward…

At least Shego seemed satisfied with the room. It was small, but the bed… a full… was actually larger than the twin in Kim's own room. The bed's couldn't move because they hid emergency escape tubes to the basement bunker, so Kim had taken the one with slightly more surrounding space in order to keep her PC close at hand and easier to reach. At least, it was easier when she bothered to pick up her laundry from what had become an improvised sorting and rapid deployment system. When she had ten minutes to pack for a run to Antarctica or Zimbawe, it was just faster to have everything out where she could grab stuff and go.

But it had been humiliating to see all the clothes she'd left on the floor. Shego's use of the word "rathole," however metaphoric the pale woman might claim it to have been, had forced Kim to really look at the place that had seemed to be such a sanctuary at a time when she'd just wanted to hide. Now she had the sinking realization that she'd just traded one set of bars and restrictions for another… and again, she'd had Shego to thank for pointing it out.

If that was anything to be thankful about, of course. There was something to be said for blessed ignorance.

Something positive Kim, think of something positive.

Well… at least it turned out that Shego actually traveled with her own linens. Fireproofed, the green woman had said and Kim didn't think she was joking. That opened up such an interesting line of questions… which she wasn't going to think about right now. She had no business thinking about Shego in bed, for whatever reasons, and the image of scorched sheets with Shego-shaped patterns was just too disturbing.

And at least the other woman was trying to be nice. Perhaps spilling the beans about the surveillance hadn't been the most reassuring thing she could have done for Kim's nerves, but it showed that she was taking Kim a lot more seriously than she had in the past. And for all that she'd been cracking comments about Kim's diet and lifestyle, she'd deliberate passed up a wealth of opportunity when she'd declined to say anything about the pantry. Kim had seen the eyebrows go up in that pale green face when she saw the crap Kim had been living on. MRE's. Toaster Tarts. Ramen Noodles. Industrial size tub of peanut butter. And 6 different kinds of breakfast cereal. Sooo not your proudest moment Possible, Kim reflected. She'd expected a major razzing. Had expected to have to explain her problem with cooking, how after all this time she was still inexplicably incapable of simple tasks like making pancakes without causing the fire alarms to go off.

But Shego hadn't said a thing. Just put the real food she'd bought in the fridge next to the cheese slices and lunchmeat, then dumped out the substance that had once been milk. Of course, it could be that the green woman was just becoming jaded at this point.

And that one went down into the list of thing's she'd determined to NEVER say to Shego, along with "green with envy" and any song by Kermit the Frog.

She wondered what Shego was doing in her room. She couldn't have that much in that little tiny carry-on, but she'd told Kim not to worry about the bigger case that was still in the trunk of her car. Probably to make it easier for her to evacuate to a nicer place in the morning.

Fuck. That was a word the Kimmie of a year ago would never have said, but it seemed to perfectly describe her situation. She was fucking up and she had to get a grip. Had to find a focus…

"What's with the deep attitude Princess?"

Kim looked up and saw what Shego had been doing, and it was a "wow" moment. Where in the hell did she get pajamas that looked just like her famous catsuit? Actually, in retrospect, the answer was probably obvious - the same place where she got the catsuits. The outfit she was wearing now was a two-piece, with a much looser fit and an incredibly light cotton weave, but the colors were spot on. If they ever made a boudoir Shego doll, this was the outfit she should be wearing.

"Like it, huh?" Shego grinned.

"Uh, yeah," Kim agreed, since her thoughts had obviously been on her face. "Very you."

"I'm very me," Shego agreed, plopping down on the far end of the sofa opposite Kim. "So… uh… did they cut off the cable?"

"Oh, no. It's satellite, 600 channels. Comes with the place." Kim straightened back up and dug around for the remote, which despite being roughly the size and shape of a brick also seemed to have advanced stealth capabilities. She'd had Wade key the important functions into her Kimmunicator as a back up but… ah, there it was. Stuffed between the cushions. "If you want to watch something…?"

"Nah, it's fine," Shego waved lazily, slowly oozing out to fill her end of the sofa. "Just saw you staring. Kind of a day, huh?"

"Yeah," Kim admitted. "Lot to think about."

"Thinking's good," Shego agreed, languidly stretching even further. Her feet were now right next to Kim's, despite her back being at the far end. "Thinking keeps you alive."

With a sigh, Kim decided to take the plunge.

"Shego?" she whispered. "How serious were you? About someone shooting me, I mean?"

Shego's look at her was almost pitying.

"You're kidding, right Princess? Doesn't Dr. Director tell you anything?"

Suddenly Kim felt a gnawing cold start to grow in the bottom of her stomach. Shego really hadn't been yanking Du's chain. But that was…

"Ridiculous?" Shego anticipated her. "No. Get with the program, kitten. You're the damn pride and joy of the Global Justice PR campaign, you've busted more supervillains than four fifths of the police departments in this country and every two bit thug wanting to make his name and reputation knows exactly what you look like and in what city you live."

The ex-villain leaned forward, her expression strangely solemn. "I figured you'd finally gotten smart when you said you'd moved out of your folks' place, but I guess you must have had other, _serious_ reasons for doing that. Please tell me you're not really THAT naïve?"

"No but…" Kim stammered, not liking the edge in Shego's tone. "I've been doing this for years and…"

"And you were a kid," Shego sighed. "Believe it or not, there are things that the vast majority of crooks still find heinous, and killing kids is one of them. That's one of the main differences Homeland Security uses to separate supervillains from terrorists… and it's the key reasons GJ has let Henchco stay in business. JH may be a nasty, ruthless son of a bitch, but he knows exactly how far he can push before John Q Public finally takes notice. There's an ironclad set of rules every hench has to sign off on, and the 'no kids, no pets' rule is number two on the list, right after 'no embezzling.' You break those rules and not only will Hench void your legal representation and insurance, he'll send GJ your last known address personally."

"Not that that's any sure protection," Shego continued darkly. "There are always the random crazies. BUT… and this is getting back to the point… you're not a kid anymore. Go on the HenchCo website and do a search for your name on the Henchman's Life forums. There's a lot of ugly talk, and the hate-fics and the KP jokes have gone from stupid to downright sick."

"Hate-fics?" Kim blinked, feeling as if yet another previously undiscovered layer of veil was being pulled from her brain. "Hold on. Are you saying the villains are telling jokes about me now?"

"They've always told jokes, Pumpkin. Anytime a group of people hates something, they find a way to belittle it, to make it seem less threatening. There are Dr. Director jokes, general Global Justice jokes, Hego and Mego jokes… some of those are actually pretty good, but I may be biased… Hell, some of the jokes they used to tell about me when I was a hero got switched over to you when you got started."

"But…" Even though Shego's tone was soft, it sent a chill down Kim's spine. "You're special Princess. You're just a basic average girl who somehow keeps taking down the heavy hitters. Do you know how humiliating it is for a grown MAN to look themselves in the mirror and admit that a CHEERLEADER can beat them? You push the average guy far enough, he's going to snap… and the day you turned 18 you became fair game."

Kim looked away from the emotion flaring out of Shego's eyes. Was she describing her own feelings from the past? Ascribing them out to others or…

The thought of Killigan… ranting and sweating… rose in her mind and she shoved it back down.

Another decision. Pulling out her Kimmunicator, she punched Wade's number in.

"Hey Kim," his face popped up almost instantly. Apparently he'd been eating dinner, because he had a fork in one hand.

"Hey Wade," Kim replied. "Look, I've been hearing some things about the HenchCo website. Do you know anything?"

Wade seemed to lose his appetite immediately. "Yeah… there's been some nasty stuff there lately. It's probably nothing but…"

"I'm here with Shego, Wade. She says its more serious than that. Can you get me in?"

Wade's eyes were rather evasive now. "Kim… I can do that. But I'd really recommend you don't go there. Maybe you should talk with Dr. Director…"

"And that's another thing Wade. Did you know Will Du's had me under surveillance ever since I moved here?"

"Yeah…" Wade's body language was now visibly upset. "They wanted me to bug you. Cameras, the works. I told them to go to hell." The young man's voice was crackling with barely restrained emotion. "But they said there was a reasonable threat. And after Killigan… Kim, they were talking about making it so you couldn't do missions anymore. Taking your passports and visas, putting you on the watchlists. I knew you wouldn't want that. Was I wrong?"

"No, you weren't wrong, Wade," Kim replied softly. The truth was that the missions were all she lived for these days. To have lost them…

"So we cut a deal," Wade's voice was stronger. He didn't know how Kim was taking all this, but it felt so good to finally tell her. "They've kept way in the background. Let you have your life and the missions. And in return I've kept quiet. And promised them a direct GPS link to your Kimmunicator, if and when they request it. If something… happens…"

"I see," Kim sighed. "I can't say I'm happy about it, but I would have made the same choice. You're a good friend Wade. I just want you to know I appreciate that."

"D… do you still want me to get you into HenchCo?"

"You don't have to," Shego interrupted softly, leaning in close to Kim so that Wade could see her. "I can get her in. Will that help keep you out of hot water with GJ?"

"A little, yeah." The computer geek looked out of the communicator with a grateful expression. "I appreciate it."

"No big," Shego smiled. "I think we've all got the same goal in mind."

"Thanks Wade," Kim added. "For… everything."

Kim stared at the Kimmunicator screen for a long time after it went dark.

"You okay Pumpkin?" Suddenly Kim was uncomfortably aware of how close Shego was, their faces separated by a matter of inches.

"No." Kim admitted. "Not really. But I think I should go check out that site now."

"Now?" Shego's eyes were dark, impossible to read. "You want to do it right now?"

"No time like the present, right?"

Shego stared at her for a long moment, then pulled slowly away, leaving a hint of what Kim thought was sandalwood behind her.

"No, actually there's a lot to be said for waiting until you're in a better frame of mind." Shego saw the response start to form on Kim's lips and held up one perfect hand to stave off the reply. "But that wouldn't be you then, would it Princess?"

"Fine," Shego sighed at last, "Do you have something to write on?"

Kim produced a piece of paper and a pen from box labeled office supplies and passed them to Shego, who scrawled down an address and an access code.

"This is so not how I wanted this evening to turn out," The green woman spoke in a low undertone as she handed the paper back to the young hero. "But please Kim… Do yourself and me a favor and just take a quick look. Stick with the jokes. They'll give you an idea of the general mood without getting too graphic. The hate-fics will give you nightmares for weeks."

"Fine," Kim agreed, pulling the TV remote from the cushions and dropping it on the couch by Shego's leg. "If you want to watch something, yellow is the regular channels, red are the premium. No charge for any of them though."

Shego didn't say anything at first, just took the remote and looked up into Kim's eyes. Finally, softly… "Just the jokes Kim. You really don't want to go past those."

Kim nodded and stepped into her bedroom. The PC booted up in a matter of seconds… Wade had set it up so that 90% of "her" system actually resided in a cloud linked to his massive mainframes, so technically all she was doing was accessing a terminal… the HenchCo site came up. The log-in name Shego had given her was IAMTHESTIG, the access code a long string of random letters, numbers and symbols. Huh. And then she was in.

How had she never heard of this site before? The thing was enormous… like a vast, evil social networking site. Okay, an eviler than normal social networking site. Notices for reunions of henchmen of various retired villains… widgets to convert various monetary units… and there it was… HENCHMAN'S LIFE.

A black screen with a list of options quickly presented itself. Forums. Classified. Humor… She clicked the last and a new selection of options appeared, one of which was JOKES. Sure enough, as Shego had said, there was a subcategory labeled _Kim Possible_.

Okay, she knew it was real. Did she need to go any further?

Maybe this was too close to home. Her cursor swung up and hit JOKE OF THE DAY instead.

_Q: WHAT DO YOU CALL DR. DIRECTOR'S NASTY LITTLE CUNT?_

Kim blinked. The language was more than she'd expected, but…

She clicked the "_A:_" beneath the question. The answer popped up almost instantly.

_A: KIM POSSIBLE_

It was like she had been hit in the chest. And apparently 88% of the henchmen who'd read this joke had rated it an A+ knee-slapper.

Kim declined to submit her own rating and went back to the main screen. She'd seen enough.

She HAD seen enough.

And yet…

With morbid fascination, she cursored back down to the KIM POSSIBLE joke section. Clicked on the button that read "BEST OF"

_Q: HOW DO YOU GET KIM POSSIBLE TO LEAVE YOUR HOUSE?_

_A: STEAM CLEAN YOUR AIR VENTS._

Okay, that hadn't been so bad. It was actually kind of funny. It was also, according to the submission date, nearly three years old. Something more recent:

_Q: Why is Kim Possible's grappling hook disguised as a hair dryer? _

_A: Because if they disguised it as a vibrator, she'd never leave her HOUSE._

Nasty, but compared to some of the things Bonnie had said over the years… Ah, here was one that was only three weeks old:

_Q: What's the best kind of box to keep Kim Possible in? _

_A: A coffin._

Numb.

That's what Kim realized she was feeling. Nothing. The idea that people would actually laugh about the idea of her death… people she didn't even know… she didn't even know how to react to it.

Shego was right. She'd been hopelessly naïve. On some level, she'd still been treating this like some kind of game… an extreme sport and a dangerous one, true… but while she'd always known the people she went up against in any encounter weren't playing, it was another thing to come face to face that there was a greater, anonymous hatred against her that reached far beyond the boundaries of the missions she'd run… beyond the criminals she'd actually fought or put in jail. The idea that there were people who'd never met her, who might never meet her, who hated her with this kind of passion…

It reframed her whole perception of who she was. Of what she was. And realizing how little she'd known, how in the dark she'd been, she had to know more. To learn what she was REALLY up against.

The cursor slid back up to the section heading that read "HATE-FICS."

####

Shego heard the violent wretching and was on her feet, grabbing a trashcan. She wasn't quite fast enough to intercept Kim in time as the girl ran from her bedroom, vomit spewing from between her fingers. The trashcan did catch most of the second round though, and by the third volley they'd made it to the bathroom.

"Aw fuck, Princess," She crooned, holding the girl's gorgeous red hair up as she sent the rest of her lunch the way of its brethren via the porcelain throne. "You looked, didn't you?"

Kim moaned softly, unable to speak as her guts squeezed themselves so dry that she couldn't imagine there being anything left at all to come. Her stomach muscles weren't quite sure, however, and they kept violently clenching for several more minutes.

"Photos." She finally managed to gasp.

"Oh. Oh…" Shego's voice was full of sympathy and self loathing. "Oh God, I'm sorry Kim. I forgot about those. Goddamned photoshop wasn't that common when I was heroing."

"My fault," Kim's voice was barely a whisper. She ran the back of her arm across her puke-smeared mouth, then realized that her hands were still caked with…

"Here," Shego spoke softly, unrolling a length of toilet paper and pressing it as a loose wad into Kim's hands. "Just rub it off and flush it."

Kim did as she was told, while Shego had to perform the interesting trick of keeping Kim's hair elevated with one hand while starting the water running in the sink three feet away. Fortunately, she was extraordinarily nimble. After another minute or so with no more dry heaves, Shego helped Kim to her feet and left the girl washing her hands and face while Shego went back to inspect the damage.

Fortunately, Kim's control had been good. There were three damp spots between the bedroom and bathroom doors, but the bedroom itself was clear… although what organization there might have been in the clothing on the floor had been obliterated as Kim ran through it.

On the PC, the last three images Kim had brought up still stared back at her. A burn victim. A nude, mutilated and blood soaked corpse. And most disturbingly, what appeared to be a frame grab from a video of a live human vivisection.

All with Kim's beautiful hair and features, carefully and artfully layered in to replace the originals'.


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks once again for all the reviews and favs. Wish I understood exactly how to interpret the hit counts exactly, but it seems that either a lot of people are liking what I've done, or they're calling their friends and saying "you won't believe this shit." Contrary to what some may suspect at this point, I really do love these characters… but my idea has always been to show KP's transition from a "Disneyfied" perception of the world to a more real one… to use a very appropriate Anne Hathaway analogy, it's the shock transition from the world of THE PRINCESS DIARIES & ELLA ENCHANTED to HAVOC & BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load., Dr. Director, Will Du and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context is probably considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 8

####

"I wish you'd eat something."

"I'm not hungry."

The redhead pulled herself into the blanket she'd wrapped around herself like a cocoon. She'd taken a shower, brushed her teeth (twice) and changed into the ratty white t-shirt and old gym pants she wore in place of pajamas, but despite all the scrubbing and attempts to freshen up, she still looked and felt like she'd come out of the wrong end of a cat.

And she'd looked at the bowl of cereal Shego had offered like it was like something that had come from the same general vicinity. The thought of eating anything made her stomach start to roil and churn, which was just gym dandy on top of the strained and aching stomach muscles.

Shego looked back at Kim from across the sofa, and tried, once again, to find a way to turn up the force of suggestion in her words without being forceful. "Come on Kimmie, you need to get something in your stomach or you're going to feel like ass in the morning."

Kim turned her snake green eyes to stare at the green woman. "I feel like ass already Shego."

"Yeah? And you think I'm not feeling like an ass for telling you about that site?" Shego drawled bitterly. "Not for telling you about it, mind you, because it's way past time someone pulled the blinders from your eyes, but for not waiting until sometime when you weren't already raring along full tilt in one of your God-damned stupid stubborn Princess bullheaded funks."

"I do not get into funks!" Kim snapped, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them and felt the guilt piling on. Damnit, things would be so much easier if Shego would give her a reason to get mad at her so she could wale on her. Instead she'd been almost scarily nice. Yes, it had been Shego who had given her access to the HenchCo website, but Kim was the one who had disregarded Shego's advice on what to NOT look at, as well as Wade's advice not to look at it at all.

Shego met her stare evenly and it was Kim who looked away. The pale woman had gone way above the call of duty tonight, especially given the fact that the two of them couldn't even be technically called friends yet. Kim had hoped to maybe move a step or two closer… okay a WHOLE lot closer to that this evening, but in the end her own inflexible tenacity had sent things careening off in a different direction. Bull-headedness, just like Shego had said.

"Sorry," Kim apologized softly. "Mom always told me it was bad manners to be rude to someone who's just cleaned up your puke."

"I'd almost believe that…" Shego sighed. "But on the other hand, I've met your mother and she'd have used some obtuse medical term."

"She actually said Emesis," Kim admitted grudgingly. "I paraphrased."

"Uh, yeah. Well, don't worry about it. I got plenty of experience back when I was experimenting with alcohol and recreational drugs. Turns out that a little plasma on low bakes vomit into an easily removable crus… I need to stop talking about this right? You look as green as me."

Kim nodded miserably, trying not to huddle in on herself, but unable to do anything else to ward off the clammy chills rolling through her body… but it wasn't talk of bodily functions that was bothering her… it was the word "bake." Accompanied by a flashback to that image of the burn victim with her face.

That violation, the stomach-churning shock and revulsion of seeing her own features photo-montaged into real situations of death and torture was beyond vile, but what was more horrifying was that the secret dark part of herself that had always smoldered within her was building, desperately seeking some avenue to vent and release. And Shego, the target of so much of her fury and aggression in the past, the one person she knew she could exorcise those demons against without actually committing murder, was the one means of discharge that was off the table. So instead her anger was turning elsewhere, to those who she'd trusted, who'd kept her in the dark about things they must have known, but chose not to tell her.

What did it say that when someone who'd been her enemy suddenly seemed like a safer harbor that the people she'd always believed were the good guys? The people who'd essentially been gaming her!

Shego obviously saw the change in expression in her eyes. Or maybe she just had to look down to see how Kim's hands were coiling into balls. Whatever it was, she had obviously detected the massive mood shift and acted accordingly. Kim looked up in surprise as the green woman slid halfway across the sofa and took Kim's hardening fists into her own.

"I know it's a lot to take in all at once, Kitten. But don't go all conspiracy theory on yourself. Not everybody's out to get you, and no matter how hurt and betrayed you're feeling right now, even most of the people you think are screwing you over will probably still be watching out for you in the end."

Kim looked incredulously at Shego, but the woman seemed completely serious.

"Here me out Kim. You may not approve of how Dr. Director handled this situation… but when you understood the options Wade had, you accepted his choice, right?"

Kim nodded slowly, reluctantly, and was rewarded with a soft, unexpectedly gentle squeeze of her hands.

"Okay. Now remember that Betty has a lot more than just you on her plate. I'm not making excuses for her, but we don't know what kind of shit she's getting from the people above her. What's important to remember is that whatever IS going on, and half-assed and heavy-handed as it may be, she's still making an effort to protect you." Shego squeezed Kim's hands again to emphasize her next words.

"You have enough enemies already Kim. Don't be in a hurry to make more than you have to. Talk to her. There are some bridges you can't unburn."

Kim stared at Shego as if seeing her with entirely new eyes. "The whole world's gone fucking crazy. I can't believe I just heard Shego defend Betty Director."

"Yeah, well I can't believe I just heard Kim Possible use the word fucking," Shego countered with what might have be the slightest hint of a smile. "You pop a cunt and a cock through those virginal lips and I'll take it as a sure sign we're living in the end of days."

The green woman's face became somber again. "But it's you I'm defending. And Betty's… for people in that world, she's not so bad. Her 'Global' pardon may not have had all the clout she'd like to think it had, but at least she tried. I've… kinda got a thing about people following through on their promises…"

The weight of a world resonated behind Shego's voice. A world that Kim was only just beginning to understand was even there. But the pale woman seemed to know exactly what she was feeling... to understand what Kim was experiencing so perfectly…

Oh.

Oohhh…

"Shego…" Kim asked softly. "Is this how it was for you?"

"Huh?" Shego's face creased quizzically. "Sorry Cupcake. The mind reading skill's aren't up to par today. Could you elaborate on that a bit?"

"This… is this why you…?"

Shego cocked her head to one side, the angle displaying the long, elegant lines of her bare neck. "Decided to study Spanish? Bought these awesome pajamas?" A beat, then softer. "Decided to quit the hero game?"

"That last one, yeah."

Shego paused for a long moment, and for a minute Kim thought she wasn't going to respond at all. And then… "That's a long, complicated story Pumpkin."

"Seems like we have all night. I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep anytime soon and you seem to want to watch me like a hawk." Kim observed clinically as the ex-villain processed through that thought. Finally…

"I'll tell you what Pumpkin. I'll answer one question. Any question." Shego's already soft voice dropped into sultry. "And I promise I'll answer it to the best of my ability… but… I want something from you first…"

"What?" Kim's breath came out in a husky whisper.

Shego seemed to fold over on herself, smoothly crossing the last expanse of sofa in a single fluid motion until she was only inches away from Kim, her beautiful green eyes smoky and full of mystery. The sandalwood scent that Kim had noticed earlier was stronger now, but her attention was completely swallowed by those mesmerizing eyes and those strange, supple lips.

"I want you to eat something Princess."

"Uh…," Kim blinked.

"Even a pack of those damn Toaster Tarts. I'm serious Kim, you need to get something in your stomach."

"Um, the double-chocolate fudge?" Kim's mind tried to refocus. Where had it just been going? "Those are my favorite."

"Trust you to prefer the ones that are the purest sugar," Shego groaned. "Okay, but in the morning I'm getting something healthy down that gullet if I have to tie you up and force feed you."

Standing carefully, the green woman flowed sinuously to her feet and walked slowly towards the kitchen with an intriguing swaying gate unlike any Kim had seen her use before. It took a moment for Kim to realize that the reason it seemed so significant was that she had never actually seen Shego walk away from her before. Run, yes. Stride, sometimes. But a simple relaxed walk? Never. They were always too guarded, waiting for the other to turn and strike.

Which was a shame, because Shego had a very nice walk. Kim took a moment to appreciate the elegance of the lines, the rippling flow of muscles and…

Had she really just been staring at Shego's ass? To put it in Monique: WTF?

"How do you like 'em?" Shego called from the pantry.

"What?" Kim squeaked.

"Your tarts. How do you like them? Hot or cold?"

"Uh… cold's fine." The truth was that Kim never toasted them. She had discovered early on that they had a frightening tendency to jam and catch fire in the toaster.

"Okay, here we go," Shego smiled as she came back around the corner with two tarts on a plate and a glass of milk, which she presented to Kim first. "You're dehydrated. Drink some of this before you scoff down those blocks of processed flour and sugar. And no, you cannot 'dunk,' it's disgusting."

Kim gave the woman the green-eyed glare, but took a deep draught of the frothy white liquid and was rewarded with the plate of brown sugar-speckled squares.

"Enjoy them while you can," Shego growled as she sat back down besides Kim. "I read the nutrition label and I'm donating the rest of those abominations to a homeless shelter in the morning."

Kim took one dainty bite from one end of a muddy brown object that was nominally considered to be a food product, then set it on the arm of the sofa.

"Shego…"

"Yes Kim?"

"Has anyone ever told you you're a pushy cunt?"

####

Shego swallowed back the smile. Bit back the laughter. Kim's timing and delivery had been perfect. She'd been badgering the girl with food, trying to distract her mind from going down the really bad paths, but she should have realized earlier that the key to pulling Kim's focus would be to suggest there were things the hyper-competitive little redhead _couldn't _do. That said, she'd be damned if she let the former cheerleader top her.

"Very good Princess," She replied serenely. "But if you can work cock into a sentence _without_ adding sucker, THEN I'll be impressed."

"Yeah, well," Kim muttered, picking up the toaster tart and taking a huge bite. "Don't hold your breath on that one."

"Not something that comes into your mouth often, huh?"

Kim gagged convulsively on the Tart as Shego exploded into a paroxysm of laughter.

"Goddamn it Shego!" Kim half screamed/half laughed around a mouthful of chocolate goo.

"You gave me the perfect straight-line!" Shego was still giggling. "Hold your breath on that one? Come on Kimmie. And what have you got, some kind of eating disorder?"

"I…" Kim started, "I… What are you trying to do, kill me?"

"Nah. I haven't been trying to do that for years."

"I know that…" And then Kim suddenly froze.

Oops. Oh yeah, Shego, that was a surefire mood killer. Now which part would Princess concentrate on?

"Wait. You mean there was a time when you WERE trying to kill me?"

The bad part of course. Evade? Or be honest for once in your life?

What the fuck. Maybe she's a better person than you are.

"Yeah. Sometimes. I think."

"You think?" The green eyes across from her were practically on fire. "You can burn through metal with your hands! And what was all that bullshit about HenchCo's contracts?"

"I never signed a HenchCo contract. What kind of idiot supervillain would hire a former superhero? Oh, wait, that's right, you've met him."

Shego took a deep breath and began the purge. "Draken found me in a rehab clinic. Pubic assistance. He was coming down off something himself, but had enough of his brain left for a teenage girl with green skin to jog his memory. You ever wonder why I stayed loyal to him, despite all the shit he made me do? There's your answer."

"By the time we first started tangling, he'd got me back to my full weight but mentally… I was really, really fucked up. I wasn't trying to snap your neck, but I was trying to cripple you, and when Doc came up with that "make you vanish" plan… I didn't try very hard to stop him."

"That's when I knew I really was evil, Kim, because I knew it was wrong and I helped him do it anyway… and because there was a part of me that just wanted to let it happen."

Shego ignored the pain in Kim's eyes and continued. "I told you I was pretty fucked up back then… and it just seemed to me like it would be easier. Easier than waiting for the day I mistimed and crushed your skull… easier than waiting to find out that something really horrible had happened to you."

She forced her eyes to stay with the redhead's, and it was the hardest thing she'd ever done.

"Nobody expected you to last a year Kim. It was ridiculous. A cheerleader taking on supervillains? Even if they were trying not to hurt you, the odds of you surviving were nil, and that's not counting the natural disasters you kept getting mixed up in. The guys in Vegas wouldn't even let you on the Dead Pool, it screwed the odds so much."

Shego stared into the bottomless void of her own soul, the words coming smoother if no easier. "The Amazonian Aurora orchid formula Drakken came up with… I had to do all the research for myself, using Drakken's notes; there wasn't anything on it anywhere on the web. He'd found the reference in some old explorer's notebook. The natives who originally discovered it used it as a kind of euthanasia drug. The point was that it was supposed to be completely painless. You would have felt like you were going to sleep."

Kim was in complete and total shock. "You make it sound like I was dog you were going to put down."

"I don't know Kim, what do you want me to say? I told you I was at a bad place in my head. In my own fucked up way I thought I was doing you a favor."

"As…" Kim's lower lip was trembling. "As opposed to WHAT?"

Oh God, Shego thought. I so do not want to go here. Why the fuck did I ever get started on this… why did I have to be honest?

But it was important… it was CRUCIAL… that Kimmie understand. So Shego dug past the bile in her own gut and pull her darkest memory from the secret tiny hole she kept it buried in.

"On the day before my 15th birthday," She heard her own voice begin. "I was on my way back to the Go Tower from school when I felt a weird little pinprick on my back."

Kim blinked at the non sequitur, but Shego was seeing only her memory. "The next thing I knew, it was three days later and I was bound to a carbon-covered metal table. A crazy part-time hit man, whole time psycho had hit me with enough horse tranquilizer to kill five elephants… he hadn't been sure how much it would take to take me down, so he'd erred on the side of caution."

"Did I mention that I was naked? Or that the straps holding me down were made of aeronautics grade titanium alloy? To this day I don't know what he did to me, and the only reason he let me wake up is that the bastard wanted to gloat. He wanted me to know who'd done it before he killed me. He'd waited three fucking days while I lay on that table, and the only mistake he'd made, the only one, was that only the straps holding me down were titanium."

"That's the day I learned how hot my plasma could go Princess. I burned so hot I fell through that table. So hot my eyes exploded and I was blind for a month until my healing factor finally restored my hair and skin and sight and hymen."

"When they found us… which they did because some orbital satellite had picked up the heat signature through three floors of concrete… they weren't even sure which of us was which at first. We were both just smoldering piles of flesh, but he'd been wearing special protective gear that had somehow kept him alive."

"Alive, that is, until someone mysteriously cut off the oxygen in the special tent they were keeping him in. In the special intensive burn unit just three doors down from the room where I spent another month and a half recovering. You want to know why Team Go fell apart? That's the day it started. Hego suspected. I think Mego knew. But I just didn't give a crap anymore."

"Because that's when I realized that the bad guys… the REALLY bad guys… were always going to have the advantage. The only reason I'm alive is because I had fucking superpowers and he made one stupid fucking mistake."

"And that's why every time I saw your perky 15 year old ass, I KNEW it would be the last time. That the next I heard of you would be when they found your body in pieces, or you'd just disappeared without a trace. And there were days I hated you for that Kim. Because it just hurt so fucking much to look at you."

####

"Dear God," Kim whispered, leaning toward her opposite instinctively. "Shego…"

"It's okay," the pale woman moved away, resisting the touch. "Eventually I got over it. Realized that you were even better than I gave you credit for. Started pushing you to become even better than that. And then one day I realized that fighting you wasn't just the best part of my life, but that I couldn't even remember the last time I'd thought about the drugs or the pain."

Shego's face turned back to Kim, and the redhead was confounded to see that while the fallen hero's eyes were filled with tears, she also wore the most beautiful smile Kim had ever seen.

"You're fucking amazing Princess. No matter what else happens between us, I want you to know that. And while I may have saved your life a time or two, you gave me back mine."

Green eyes met green eyes for the longest time. Something was trying to pass between them, but the invisible wall still held

Finally, with a soft sigh, Shego turned and started to rise, her face away from Kim…

Only to be caught in a vise-like embrace from behind.

"Where do you think you're going? The hero demanded quietly.

"To pack," Shego responded. "I think…"

"I think," Kim cut her off, "That there are a few things left to say."

"Like?"

"Like the fact that Wade got the information on the Amazonian Aurora orchid off the internet. Including all the chemical information required to make an antidote." Kim's arms wrapped tighter around Shego, pulling her back towards the sofa, but that wasn't the cause of the green woman's sudden shortness of breath. "I was curious so we tracked it down. Someone had posted it, anonymously, the day before Wade searched."

"Yeah, well…" Shego's voice was shakey and broken as Kim's arms held her with the ultimate tenderness. "I told you I was kinda fucked up."

And then she let the warmth enfold her.


	9. Chapter 9

_Whew. Chapter 8 was banging around my various computers in a lot of different pieces for about five days, and I want to apologize about the sloppy editing, especially to those who read it when it first went up… It was the first time I'd tried to do a major clean-up completely in the online editor and… well… I won't do that again. I still need to go back and clean up all the typos and missing and transposed words in the earlier chapters as well, but some of the ones in 8 were beyond atrocious. For those who commented, "Kitten" comes from the same place as "Princess" in my mind… apparently Shego caught a lot of "Father Knows Best" in reruns… if you've seen that saccharine ode to the ideal perfect family, it adds an additional twisted touch. Thanks for the nice comments, favs, etc. Folks have been unbelievably kind thus far and I just hope it will turn out to be justified. __**Ye Old Legalese:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, the Drs. Possible, Ron Stoppable and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

_#_

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 9

##

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Kim wasn't sure if it was the insistent sound of the buzzer or the nagging pressure in her bladder that first pulled her from the soft warm place into which she had drifted, but ultimately it was the latter that forced her out of that wonderful cocoon to face the dawning day.

Immediately, she was aware of two things.

First, she wasn't in her bedroom. However, the textured pattern on the ceiling was perfectly consistent with the one she had become quite familiar with after crashing on the sofa while watching late night marathons.

Second, the pressure in her bladder wasn't completely due to having to go to the bathroom. Rather, a good portion of it was because there was a person lying on her. A person whom Kim's arms were still wrapped around. Who was actually lying between Kim's own legs.

She took the welling comprehension that said person was Shego with considerably less shock than she might have anticipated. In fact, looking down at the sleeping face, the perfect body spooned in on top of hers, she realized that it felt more than just surprisingly good. It felt unbelievably right.

But the fact that she'd fallen asleep… spent the whole night… holding Shego instead of Pandaroo? That was still a revelation of earth-shaking proportions.

It was at about this point that the buzzing sound started to intrude once more on her waking mind. The doorbuzzer, she belatedly realized, was being annoyingly insistent.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

"Shit," she mumbled to herself as she tried to carefully extricate her way from beneath the beautiful green woman without waking her. This was even more difficult than she'd anticipated, as while the blanket Kim was wrapped in was under her, it was also wrapped OVER Shego, who had it locked firmly in her sleeping grasp. Essentially, she was the salsa and Shego the guacamole in a huge Bueno Nacho veggie blanket burrito wrap that had been expertly folded so as to not come apart.

"Buzz buzz," the buzzer reminded her persistently, adamantly. If Kim had been in her bedroom, there would have been a convenient intercom switch by the bed, but out here…?

The Kimmunicator. It was always the Kimmunicator that was the way out. The small device was on the floor, tantalizingly within finger grasp of her right hand. Stretching her upper body muscles to their utmost extent, she managed to snag and drag it along the flooring, trapped it against the edge of the sofa, then brought it carefully up to her face… all without ever rattling Shego, who continued to smile pleasantly skywards during the entire operation.

The buzzer, of course, continued to buzz.

Fortunately, Kim knew the intercom forward codes by heart, as every so often she had to remotely open the outer door to let a delivery person in while she was out of town. Holding the Kimmunicator close to her face to screen out Shego's presence, she toggled the key sequence and the door FINALLY stopped buzzing.

Of course, what it also did was bring the broadly grinning visage of the person who had been ringing the buzzer on the screen.

"Bananagram!" smiled the gorgeous dark skinned face, which was far, far too damn chipper for this early in the morning.

"Monique?" Kim blinked through sleep-encrusted eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Good morning to you too, sleepyhead," The redhead's best friend not-since-pre-K responded cheerily. "Have you forgotten that I was supposed to meet with you and Ms. Stein about costuming for this photo shoot you're doing?"

Costume… photo shoot?

"Ohhh… right…" Now that Monique mentioned it, Kim did vaguely remember that she'd actually suggested that Anna talk with her friend. But she was absolutely positive that that had involved meeting at the hotel, not here.

"Well, I stopped by your parents' and they said they had some mail you'd be wanting, so I figured I'd drop by here first and then we could ride in together."

"Ah… okay," Kim nodded, with what she hoped was an appropriate approximation of a look of gratitude she was feeling incredibly guilty for not feeling at this particular moment. On any other morning it would have been a greatly appreciated gesture. Any other morning… "I… uh… I'll let you in in a second, okay?"

"Sure, no problem," Monique grinned as Kim flicked off the link.

Fortunately, during the conversation Shego had started to awaken somewhat, so Kim felt a little less guilty about gently… GENTLY… reaching around and touching the woman's shoulder…

"Uh, Shego…? Shego…" Kim whispered.

"Hum? Whazza buppin?" Shego mumbled as she started to roll over on her side, clearly not anticipating the fact that she was actually both on a slight incline (Kim's upper torso) and on top of a semi-cylindrical object (Kim, the rest of.) As a result, her smooth attempt to snuggle back down into the covers turned into an abrupt near tumble and suddenly her very wide eyes were staring directly into Kim's.

"Gurk!" The green woman squeaked… yes, squeaked, there was no other word to describe the almost sub-vocalized, breathy gasping exclamation that terminated in a high-pitched and rising "eep!" Her eyes, only a few inches from Kim's now, looked like a deer's caught in the headlights of an NRA Tour Bus.

"Uh… Hi?" Kim smiled with a look that could best be called sheepish hopeful with a scattered shower of intense apprehension, trying as hard as she could not to pay attention to the fact that her breasts and Shego's were now attempting to nestle over and under each other like mating cuddle-buddies.

"P… Princess…?" Apparently Shego was going through much the same set of reactions that Kim had. Looks of incredulity, perplexity and what-the-hell-did-I-do-ity rolled over her face, before settling into a combination of weirded-out and bashful wariness that Kim knew must be quite similar to the expressions she wore on her own.

"Uh…" Shego blinked.

"Yeah. We fell asleep out here," Kim giving voice to the unspoken question of whether that was all they had done. And unless you counted a little talking… and a lot of holding… it was. Last night had been… revelatory in so many ways. It had just seemed so natural, in the state of exhaustion where their minds had been, to wrap themselves around each other… to reassure both each other and themselves that not all was darkness. That each was important to the other. That they could be THERE for each other.

Kim let those emotions play back through her mind. Where it was going to go now… she didn't have the slightest idea. She didn't think Shego did either. But oh my God it had felt good, to know that the strange bond she had always felt running between them….

OH SHIT! Monique!

"Front door. Buzzer. Waiting." Kim signaled in verbal shorthand as Shego's eyes widened in comprehension. Fortunately their intense familiarity with each others' bodies came into play and as the green woman rolled back, thrusting herself up with her right arm, Kim was able to slide out easily from under her now that the blanket was free. The speed it all occurred with was a blessing, as under any other circumstances Kim would probably have been more than a little freaked out to see that not only had Shego's thin cotton top come partially undone during the night, but Kim's Tee had also rolled up, so for a few brief seconds they'd had some fairly… intimate contact going on. Their eyes locked for a second and Kim felt a strange quiver run up and down the length of her body. Saw it arc like electricity across to Shego where it formed a matching shiver…

'_And we'll have to deal with this later,'_ Kim thought in frustration, desperately forcing it to the back of her mind as she hop, skip and jumped her way through the obstacle course of her living room floor, almost making her way through unscathed until what appeared to be a carburetor leaped into her path and savagely mauled her big toe. _So the fucking DRAMA!_

Meanwhile, the green woman had pulled herself erect and had just started to pick up the blanket when her own call of nature hit. Just as Kim had finally made her way to the inner airlock door and thumped the "open" button, she heard the sound of the bathroom door closing and locking behind her!

"Sheegooo! Nooo!" Kim hit the door begging, the dash across the floor having set into motion tidal forces that could not be denied by any mortal girl. "For the love of God!"

"Sorry Kim!" Came the equally panicked reply. "Kinda can't get up right now! I'm hurrying!"

Thus it was that as a puzzled Monique stepped into the room a few seconds later, she was greeted by an almost franticly twitching Kim, who was simultaneously clutching one foot and hopping on the other.

Monique, dressed to perfection in an elegant business skirt, blouse and jacket of her own design, took one look at her friend in her ratty old t-shirt, and immediately decided that Kim was probably NOT dancing to a beat only she could hear. "Uh… Are you alright K?"

"Bathroom. Toe," Kim chanted. "Waiting. Sorry."

Monique had had just enough time to process the fact that there was someone else in the apartment when any further conversation was cut off by the sound of a flush.

"Switch!" Came a female voice, the bathroom door opening as a half-dressed Shego stepped out to face Monique in the exact same millisecond that Kim flew in. The door slammed shut within that same millisecond and an enormous and loudly vocal sigh of relief echoed from within. At least, that's how fast it all seemed to happen to Monique.

This, of course, now left Shego standing there facing a now totally confused Monique, who had thought she was ready to meet Shego at the hotel later but was now finding that confronting the most dangerous woman on the planet in her best friend's hallway… readjusting her PJs no less… was an entirely different matter.

"I know you…" Shego stated cautiously, fairly sure she recognized the attractive young black woman. "It's Monique, right?"

Vocal chords having temporarily failed, Monique simply nodded in the affirmative.

"I'd offer to shake…" Shego began, but held up her hands and rolled her head back towards the restroom to indicate the fact that she hadn't had time to…

"Quite alright," Monique replied, holding up her own hands in a mirror gesture for reasons not quite apparent, without (she hoped) a hint of the horrific nervousness she was actually experiencing on her face. "Happens to me all the time!"

"Heh." Shego tried to smile non-threateningly.

"Heh." Monique tried to smile as if she wasn't feeling terrifically threatened.

And then, after a second…

"Oh wow! Those are AWESOME pajamas!"

####

Monique was definitely wishing that she'd bothered to call ahead before just showing up this morning. Normally it wouldn't have been an issue. Normally Kim would have been glad for a way to duck the paparazzi. But who would have thought Kim would have a house guest? Especially THIS house guest?

To the best of Monique's knowledge, the only people who'd ever been to this place were herself, Ron and the two Dr. Possibles. Who would have ever expected Kim's arch foe… reformed or not… to make that list? It was a little less awkward than if it had been a guy, but even so there was just something odd about the whole thing, something she couldn't quite put her finger on…

"So, do you want an omelet too, Monique?" Shego was asking.

Monique's eyebrows shot up as she looked across the kitchen table at the ex-villain. THAT was part of it. Shego was being waaay too polite. To be sure, Monique was still having trouble reconciling the woman casually cooking in her PJs with the mental image she'd always had of Shego… and she'd spent some time around the nauseatingly sweet Miss Go… but the more she watched, the more it seemed that the woman was trying just a bit TOO hard to be nice.

"Made from items found in Miss Possible's Refrigerator of Caloric Despair?" Monique answered the question with a sly dig at Kim. "TBNT!"

"That's thanks but no thanks," Kim translated quickly for the green pajamaed woman while giving her friend of several years an exasperated roll of the eyes. "Monique has long labored under the misconception that using initials is some kind of timesaver."

"SIUYA, Possible." Monique scowled back. Okay, now that she thought about it, _'shove it up your ass'_ would have been quicker to say and it WAS a weird affectation. Still, it had the appropriate effect of making people think about what she said, and when you had gone to a school filled with such larger than life personalities as Kim, Ron and the infamous Bonnie, it took every edge you could get just to get noticed. Monique HAD been noticed.

"We'll have none of those kind of acronyms at the table, Monique," Shego responded with a mock look of disapproval as she continued to concentrate on working up the omelets she was prepping for herself and Kim. Monique could see that the pale woman was fighting around one of the traditional difficulties of doing anything culinary at Chez Kimberly. Apparently she'd forgotten to ask Kim if she had proper cookware last night and was now having to make do with a small stew pot instead of a skillet. Monique wondered what the tall woman would think if she knew what had happened to that skillet. It had been… quite spectacular.

"But FYI," Shego was saying, "I stopped at the store last night and bought decent food. Little Miss Priss is going on a new diet effective today."

"Well thank God," Monique praised, and meant it. "I was beginning to think the only reason she hadn't keeled over dead was the level of preservatives in her blood."

"Hey, I eat out better when I've got the money!" Kim protested, her face fully as red as her scarlet tresses.

"OH! And speaking of which," Monique recalled, reaching into her purse and pulling out a handful of envelopes. "Your mom said you were waiting on these."

"Oh thanks," Kim smiled and once again Monique's suspicions were raised. For some reason Kim was restraining herself from falling on the envelopes like a ravening wolf, but she knew that inside the girl was singing the Hallelujah chorus. Among the small core group that constituted Kim's closest friends and family, the hero's struggling financial status had become a major area of concern. The long overdue royalty checks would be like manna from heaven.

"Whatcha got there Kit… Kim?" Shego asked with studied nonchalance. "Can't be bills with that reaction."

"The opposite." Monique confirmed, once again feeling that there was a subtext she'd missed.

"Yeah," Kim flushed, looking like she didn't really want to go into it. "Some checks I've been waiting on."

"Oh?" Again, Shego's tone was just oh-so casual.

"Mm hmm. Some money from some patents I have. A universal coupling for air-to-air refueling of small jets and a folding knife optimized for bomb disposal technicians. Plus a couple of bounty checks from Global Justice."

Well THAT was interesting Monique noted. She'd seen how Kim had looked directly at Shego when she'd mentioned the bounty checks, as if expecting a specific reaction, but instead Shego had simply continued working for a moment before her brow slowly creased in recollection.

"Would that be the coupling that comes standard on the new Lear's?"

"Yeah," Kim looked up in surprise. "You've seen one?"

"Own one," the green woman grinned. "Nice work Princess. Didn't know you did the geek thing."

"The wonders of CAD," Kim shrugged. "I worked out the structure and dynamics and let the Tweebs handle the prototype and tooling."

"In exchange for 50%," Monique interjected with a frown. "I still think you're too generous with them."

"Inspiration versus perspiration Monique," Kim disagreed amiably. "They ran the trials, proved the fluid dynamics were sound and we were too involved with graduation anyway. The way I see it, it's small payment for money I wouldn't have otherwise."

"Yes, well, the Tweebs aren't sacrificing their lives to save the world," Monique perversely felt like arguing. "Someday they'll be sitting on top of a big pile of patents and you'll be…"

"It's my life, Monique," Kim came back with unexpected strength. "And I AM making changes."

Monique couldn't help but notice that while Kim was responding to HER words, she was looking at Shego when she said it.

Curiouser and curiouser.

"Are you SURE you don't want an omelet?" Shego asked again.

WAAAY too nicely.

#####

Anna watched as Cyn let their visitors in and once again wondered how the blonde did it. Contrary to her request after the sparring session the previous afternoon, Cyn had managed to find an alternative to personal stimulation in the form of an attractive tall, brunette and impressively well stacked member of the Middleton Special Weapons force. The two women had disappeared directly after the session and Anna hadn't seen Cyn again until just over an hour ago, when she'd waltzed into the room wearing an oversized MPD sweatshirt, whistling the theme from S.W.A.T. and looking generally well rumpled. Now she was once again the model of the perfect assistant.

"Ladies," Anna smiled as Kim and Shego entered flanking the young woman Anna recalled was Kim's friend Monique, who carried an oversized artist's portfolio under one arm. Anna had been a little hesitant to involve yet another unknown quantity until she'd learned that Monique had not only designed Kim's current mission wear, but had also helped extensively with the other girls' costumes for last year's shoot and had done a large amount of work assisting photo-shoots for Club Banana in the time since. The most important factor, however, was the fact that Kim had professed complete trust in the girl. Anna was quickly realizing that Kim had very few friends who could be considered ordinary.

That didn't mean she was going to accept the girl's ideas, of course, but she would give her an open hearing.

In the meantime, Anna was watching Kim and Shego's reactions as they saw that Anna had brought in a portable studio set up…. a half dozen lights of various shapes and sizes, an equal number of stands, a large tubular truss that supported several different rolled cloth backgrounds in a variety of colors and a stack of gels, cookies and scrims. She expected the sudden show of nerves, but what surprised her was that they turned their nervous smiles to each other, and how Kim had reflexively reached out to touch the taller woman's arm… reassuringly or to be reassured? Interesting…

"Kim, Shego," Anna smiled as the three took their seats opposite her desk. "Monique. The imp hovering behind me is my assistant Cynthia, and I believe we met briefly last year. However, I'm afraid my notes are incomplete and my memory's not what it used to be. What was your last name again?"

"Actually, Ma'am," The thin girl blushed. "It's just Monique. That's my professional name. My family name is Rochon, if you need it."

"Ah, that explains that," Anna nodded, then switched her attention to the object under Monique's arms. "So, I assume you've brought some samples of your previous work?"

"Uh… no ma'am," The young woman blushed again, opening up the portfolio to reveal a large stack of illustrations on heavy watercolor paper… "I actually was kind of up all night drawing up some concepts." Monique was now looking very embarrassed. "I mean, I know that sounds presumptive, but I'm not expecting you to use any of them. I just wanted some things that would fit Kim and Shego and nothing in my portfolio really worked."

"I… see…" Anna tried to maintain a calm demeanor, but she had just realized that Kim Possible had done it to her again. The illustrations she was looking at were brilliant, absolutely brilliant… and they had all clearly been done last night as they reflected the athletic poses that Anna had briefly described in the notes that she'd had Wade forward. And what was even more impressive, Anna reflected, was that they truly proved the adage that great minds think alike…

Monique had visualized Kim and Shego as goddesses. Wrapped in ephemeral drapes of translucent gauze that revealed as much as they concealed, her sketches depicted them in constant, flowing motion, hair and fabric trailing behind them in ethereal streams eerily like Shego's plasma. Anna felt Cyn moving in close behind her to examine the pictures, could see Kim and Shego attempting to get slightly better views without being too obvious, then turned her attention back to Monique, who was nervously waiting for some sort of response.

"Well, Monique," Anna finally smiled. "I think you need to start calling me Anna."

It was hard for Anna not to laugh as Monique let out the huge breath she'd obviously been holding with visible relief. Oh, to be that young again! But the girl truly had let herself out on a limb, and there were photographers who would have crushed her dreams without a second thought.

"So color me intrigued. But…" Anna motioned to the top illustration, which had a somewhere between Greek mythology and a painting by Raphael. "How long do you think it would take to pull this all together?"

Monique smiled tightly and pulled a flat plastic package from inside the portfolio's inner pocket. "These are some prototypes I made this morning."

Anna heard Cyn's breath catch as Monique began to unfold one of the items, revealing it to be a gossamer thin gown of an incredibly thin material that caught the light in a dazzling cascade of sparkles and shimmers.

Anna looked at the gorgeous garment… garments, there were at least two… and then back up to Monique.

"You did the designs AND sewed these in less than 24 hours?"

"Actually," Monique admitted. "I didn't sew them. I had them extruded."

Shego and Kim made the same connection at the same instant, speaking almost simultaneously.

"You had this made at the space center!"

"I KNEW that looked stuff familiar!"

"You had this done on the machine that made the Centur… uh… THAT suit?" Kim asked for confirmation. "That's why you were at my parent's place."

"Close," Monique acknowledged. "The same kind of electronic loom. It's a secret project I've been working on for Club Banana… instant customized clubwear. Your father got me access to the machines a few months ago. We're still working out the bugs in the scanning technology, but the fabric printers work just fine. This seemed like the ideal test project."

"It's…" Anna started to say, then she saw something she hadn't noticed before. The unique way the fabric caught the light was more than just glitter. "They're retro-reflective?"

At Monique's nod, Anna explained to a still confused Cyn. "Just like a traffic sign. Tiny mirrors that bounce light in an optically perfect line back to the source."

"So put a light on the camera…" Cyn got the picture.

"And they glow!" Anna finished.

"More than that," Monique continued. "Unlike conventional reflective fabrics, the optical beads are separated in the fiber matrix such a way that we can adjust the transparency by adjusting the weave. I ran these at 70%, but we can run identical sets at any level for the appropriate effect."

"And the cost?" Anna asked carefully.

"My seniors at Club Banana and Dr. Possible at the Space Center have assured me that they will happily donate the time and materials as a contribution to the Four Cities project."

"Wow." Anna marveled, then looked up at Kim who was exchanging some kind of look with Shego. "So do you have any other friends we should know about Kim?"

Now what could she have said to prompt THAT expression on Kim's face, Anna wondered?


	10. Chapter 10

_**Yep. It's time.**_

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, the Drs. Possible, Ron Stoppable and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

###

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 10

###

Kim froze for just a second. Had Anna just asked if…?

No, of course she hadn't. It was just that Kim's own mind had been running down a different track of thought, and she'd just happened to have been looking directly at Shego when the question was asked.

She'd been looking at Shego a lot this morning. Out of the corner of her eyes. When she thought no one was looking. Sometimes even when she knew people were looking. She knew it was odd behavior for her, yet her eyes kept being drawn back.

And what was freaking her out was that she also wanted to touch.

After last night's emotional gauntlet... their 'escape' from the paparazzi, that magnificent sparing session, the soul leveling sensory barrage of the hate sites and after-wards... it just seemed impossible that it had only been a day since they last sat in these chairs. That her life could have been uprooted so rapidly yet fundamentally in such a short time. But somehow, the strange synergy she'd always shared with the green woman had become a pyrophoric catalyst, throwing gasoline on what had already been a volatile relationship and turning it into...

Well, yes, that was the big question wasn't it? Into what?

Yesterday's escalating series of soul-ripping revelations had done more than just stripped her essence to its very core, had seared off more than just the blinders Kim had placed around the issues of her physical safety, of her public perception and probable ultimate fate... it had left her forced to finally face the creature, the animal, that lived at the core of Kim Possible.

And then she'd gone and kicked the drama up another level all by herself.

At first she'd convinced herself that what she'd done last night had been a simple act of compassion.

That there was no way she could have let the woman leave in that mental state. Not after Shego had bared herself in that way. Especially not after Shego had talked Kim down from the precipice of own crisis... But there had been a calculated intent on Kim's own part as well. She COULDN'T let Shego go, had needed the woman to stay. Desperately. And in the realization of that truth, Kim confirmed what she had already begun to suspect... that the connection between herself and the pale woman went way beyond the rivalry and sparring... that when she was with Shego she felt more like the Kim she wanted to be than at any other time; as if the ex-villainess was somehow the mirror she needed in order to see her own soul.

Wow. This was really heady stuff.

The problem was that Kim didn't have the slightest idea what Shego was making of what had happened. How could she? The two of them hadn't had a single solitary second alone this entire morning, thank you very much Monique. She'd kept hoping that her supposed best friend would have to use the bathroom or ask to use the computer or SOMETHING, but instead Kim and Shego had spent the morning giving each other weird-eyed exchanges of looks whenever they thought Monique hadn't been watching. It was like something out of a cheesy romantic comedy!

Kim's mind hit a scratch and backed up. Had she really just used the "R" word?

She had.

But that would make her…

Okay, let's look at this objectively.

Everything that had happened so far could just mean Shego was developing a protective big sister mentality towards her. Perfectly logical. Being a big sister herself, Kim knew that sisters DID sometimes bash their younger siblings while taking on a very defensive attitude against all outsiders. Especially hyper-agressive outsides like, say, Warmonga. And as for the sleeping together thing, that's all and exactly what they had done: sleep. And finally, while the green woman hadn't exactly woken up in horror at finding herself in bed with Kim, and certainly hadn't run screaming out of the apartment, she hadn't exactly leaned up and planted a big fat kiss on Kim's lips either.

Which brought up the question as to whether Kim had wanted her to?

And if she hadn't wanted it, why couldn't she stop wondering about what it would have been like? Whether it would have been like soft and mushy like kissing Ron… or if it would have been as fiery and incendiary as it felt when she and Shego's bodies slammed together in the heat of combat?

Once again she thought back to yesterday's sparring session. How it had felt as they had pushed each other past all possible expectation, achieving a level of physical synchrony that had transcended the martial in martial arts to become art itself. Could it have been as good as that?

God, could it have been even better?

And THAT brought up the memory of that quiver that had gone through both of them right as they were getting up. THAT had meant something. Oh boy had it meant something. And if Kim didn't stop thinking about what that something was, she was going to have a nervous meltdown before she could answer Anna's question.

Which had been about what? Oh yeah, friends.

"Um, well…" Kim thought quickly down the list of people she knew who might be helpful and a name… two names actually… seemed to pop into her head. Exactly why, she wasn't sure, but as the Machiavellian possibilities linked together in her head, she saw a certain chain of poetic justice forming.

"Actually, you might want to talk to my brothers," She smiled innocently.

"The TWEEBS?" Monique almost fell out of chair in shock. Even Shego looked surprised.

"Tweebs?" Anna asked.

"Twin Dweebs," Monique filled in. "Half-child genius, half-evil spirit times two. Unfortunately the math works out that you get twice the child instead of one rational grown up while the evil makes up the difference."

"Oookay," Anna looked at Kim with an arched eyebrow. "And we'd want to speak to them why?"

"Tracking. I happen to know that they've developed a system for making multiple cameras automatically follow and focus on multiple subjects, even when they're moving at extremely high rates of speed. That WAS one of the issues you were worried about, right?"

"What Kimberly's not saying," Monique added at Anna's nod, "Is that we know they developed it because they'd been using it to take rather lecherous shots of the cheer squad, the gymnastics club, the female members of the track team and, of course, one Kimberly Ann Possible…"

"Though the latter was simply for the purpose of busting me when I broke curfew," Kim clarified. "Which is how I caught them."

"It… does sound interesting," Anna admitted. "But do you really think it would be applicable here?"

"You'd have to talk to them," Kim allowed, "But I know that they used some kind of external module that attached to my dad's dSLR lenses without damaging them. The trick revolves around tiny little coded tracking pellets that are placed on each subject. I'm sure some clever person with a comprehensive knowledge of clothing and jewelry could work with them to find a way to disguise them."

Monique's face went pale. "Kim Possible! What have I ever done to you?"

#####

Shego bit back an explosive guffaw. It was completely not in keeping with the character she was trying to project, and she didn't want Monique to snap to the fact that Kim's suggestion was actually a sneaky little bit of tit for tat that Shego thoroughly approved of. She'd never realized that the Possible mind even had such a devious bent and it was rather amusing to see how that All-American, sugar-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth face could seem so earnest while actually being quite diabolical. That was definitely a lesson to keep in mind during future dealings with the redhead…

And Shego was very interested to know exactly what the nature of those future dealings might be. She'd expected that exposing the secrets she'd kept hidden, while they would have the intended effect of getting Kim to become professionally paranoid enough to survive, would also result in the permanent exit of one green supervillain from the ex-cheerleader's life. The last thing Shego had expected was a blanket embrace and… she wasn't sure if absolution was the right term, but how else to explain the extraordinary trust Kim had shown her last night? Shego had admitted… ADMITTED… to having tried to kill Kim in the past, told the young woman exactly what her own personal definition of evil was and how she fit that description down to a T, she'd confessed to her history of substance abuse… she'd even come clean about having intentionally killed someone, for God's sake, and…

And it hadn't mattered. The damned redhead's record of completely confounding the green woman had continued unchecked, and instead of finding herself out on the street, Shego had experienced the first nightmare free sleep she could remember since she'd turned 15.

And she'd found it in the arms of an angel, nestled against the very warm and perfectly fitting body of Kim Possible.

If only she'd been the first one to wake up, maybe she could have had time to think of how to properly react before Monique had shown up, to have said SOMETHING. Or at least had a chance to watch the Princess while she slept. Instead she'd surprised herself with her own restraint, forcing herself to be nicer than she'd thought she could be, making omelets for the two of them, even offering to make one for Monique. At one point she'd been so polite and courteous that it felt like she was having a relapse into her odious Miss Go persona… and her hatred of Miss Go, of that total mental submission to an outside influence, bordered on pathological.

But she'd done it because the one thing that she couldn't have handled would be to scare Kim off now. Before she could figure out what this strange relationship truly was:

Need?

Desire?

Or another word that kept hovering in the back of her mind, but that she was still opting to keep suppressed in the background, out of focus.

Which was what Anna happened to be talking about at the moment.

"Yes," The older woman was saying, "Not having to track focus would be a help trying to photograph the more... kinetic displays, so Monique, if you could get with with these Dweebs."

"Tweebs," Monique, Kim, Shego and Cyn all corrected in unison.

"Tweebs," Anna continued as if uninterrupted, "It would probably be worth the effort, especially if you can integrate it into something unobtrusive. Failing that, the alternative would be to paint them a brilliant color so they could be removed in Photoshop."

"That, however," Anna turned her focus directly to Kim and Shego, "Leads to the reason for the little setup we have here."

All eyes quickly flicked to the assembled lights and backdrops, then back to each other.

"The one thing that I noticed in the test shots I did yesterday it that the difference in your skin pigmentation seems to extend below just the surface layer. Shego consistently photographs just a bit darker than she appears to the naked eye, which I'm guessing means that less light goes through the skin and bounces back... whereas Kim... well, you go in the opposite direction."

Anna held up one hand. "Not an insurmountable problem. It's a common issue with shooting more than one model, although I've never dealt with quite this extreme a range of pallets before. All we have to find the right combinations of lighting that level the playing field. Soooo, what I HAD intended to propose for today is that we do some tests with different gel and filter combinations until we find the best compromises."

"However," And now it was Anna who looked like she was working to a secret evil agenda, "Since Monique has surprised us all with these amazing costume samples that will ALSO need to be tested..."

Shego could complete what Anna was going to say even before it left her lips.

"Why don't we go just for it all at once and see what happens?" The photographer finished, as expected.

"Uh..." Shego started to speak before she pulled it back. She'd expected to have a little more time to lead into this. And THIS...

Fortunately Kim was sympathetic... but when wasn't Kim sympathetic? Outside of kicking her into a electrical tower, which after learning the full details of Drakken's little plot, Shego had to admit was pretty justified.

"Is something wrong Shego?" Kim was asking.

"Um... Kim?" Shego looked at the woman who already had her so mentally confused she could barely think straight, and realized that perhaps the redhead was being even less observant. "You might want to look at these costumes just a little more carefully."

Kim looked.

And flushed red.

Then flushed an even deeper shade of red.

"OH MY GOD MONIQUE!"

Kim looked at her 'friend' in complete disbelief, and Shego could see the entire manufacturing processe and especially the method of DELIVERY process running through her head.

"MY _DAD_ SAW THESE?"

At least Monique had obviously never thought about it, Shego noted as the other girl suddenly clamped her hands over her own mouth in mortification. And with that tiny concession, Shego found room in her heart to be more generous than she'd EVER imagined possible.

The Tweebs, she reflected, would probably ALMOST be punishment enough.

#####

Holding the flimsy constructs that Monique had euphemistically termed costumes, Kim and Shego stepped into the master bedroom portion of the suite. As Anna had described, Kim could see that the room had both a huge bathroom and a walk-in closet, both equipped with multiple mirrors and each large enough to serve as a private dressing room.

Laid out on the bed were two white robes of Turkish cotton... the uber-expensive high-pile count terry cloth that Kim had always loved but never been able to afford. Each had the hotel's insigna over the left breast.

One in Shego's size.

One in Kim's.

She barely had time to take all that in before the door closed behind them.

Then the room and the shoot and everything outside of this time and this place faded into nothingness.

Kim turned to Shego.

And Shego turned to Kim.

Since the moment minute Monique had arrived this morning until this very second they had never had a single second alone.

Until now.

And NOW Kim was horrified to realized that she couldn't find the words she wanted to say.

Shego managed it first, although her eyes were wary, and she was biting her lower lip again in a gesture Kim found oddly familiar.

_'Because you've seen it in a mirror,'_ Kim knew.

"What's..." Shego's voice was unnaturally soft. ""What's going on with us Princess?"

_A good beginning_. Kim's nervous voice took the next step in the dance. "I don't know Shego…" _Don't stop! Go forward!_ "I don't know. But…"

"But…?" Now Shego's had met hers and they were locked.

And Kim knew that the look she was returning to Shego was one her opponent had never seen before. That no one had ever seen before.

"But the one thing that scares me… the only thing that scares me... is the chance you might disappear from my life again."

And then they were in each others' arms.

"God," Shego murmured softly, her lips gently skirting across the delicate oval of Kim's perfect ear. "I thought I was going to go insane not being able to talk to you this morning."

"I was insane," Kim confessed, her hands explored the exquisite muscling of the pale woman's back as her other senses became lost in the act of exploring the sandalwood scented skin above Shego's collarbone, the soft surface of her jade neck. "I should never have answered the door this morning. Or told Monique to go away. Or…"

"She might have found that rather suspicious," Shego exhaled, her delicate tones trailing the vaguest hint of a chuckle.

"I wouldn't have cared," Kim confessed. "I…" The redhead stopped, fumbled for words…

"How can I have missed you so much when we were in the same room?

"I don't know…" Shego sighed breathlessly. "But that's it. That's exactly what it was like…" And now it was her time to look confused. "But… exactly what are we?"

"To each other? Or are you looking for a label?" Kim questioned. "I don't know about the latter. But I know you're important. To me. In a way that no one has ever been before."

"Yeah..." Shego smiled, but it was a different smile. It was like the sun and the moon and all the planets had come together. It was like black had become white, like evil had become good... like... whatever it was that they'd had had just inexplicably become more than Kim had ever dreamed possible.

And she knew what it was.

FINALLY, oh my god YES! She KNEW what it was...

THIS was the Drama!


	11. Chapter 11

_Sorry about being a little late on the update this time. Last week I was ahead and had a little extra time to sneak in. With the beginning of the month come a lot of new assignments in the real world, so I'm trying to hit a more equitable balance of work versus… whatever this is. I also apologize for not answering e-mails in a prompt fashion. I'm truly grateful for all the wonderful comments, but to be honest… I'd rather be writing ATCOTS than e-responses. I WILL catch up on that as well. In the meantime: __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, Mego and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 11

###

For one brief minute, Kim allowed herself to surrender to the wonder of the moment; relief and exhilaration overwhelming her as she realized that not only had she not scared Shego away, but that, in fact, the green woman's thoughts DID seem to be flowing in a direction parallel to Kim's own. The knowledge that she… and they… would have time to venture into this new relationship carefully, was reassuring but...

But even so, there was one question that was still dancing through her mind unresolved. But even as she began to entertain the idea of lifting her face towards Shego's entrancing black lips in an oh- so tentative probe, the venture was cut off by the suddenly worried… almost agonized… look that appeared on Shego's face.

There's… just a few problems," Shego sighed.

And Kim's heart went into free-fall.

####

Shego looked down at Kim's face, separated by bare inches from her own, and felt a stab of pain as she saw the shield of wariness come up. She hated herself for doing what she was doing, but it wouldn't be fair otherwise. She had messed up her own life so badly and she wouldn't… couldn't… drag the ex-cheerleader down with her.

"Problems?" The beautiful green eyes looking up at Shego blinked nervously. Looking unusually moist. What was going on in there? What had Kim had been about to say…? Or do…?

"Um... yeah," Shego flushed, cursing herself for not letting that glorious moment hold just a little longer… "I… told you I had problems Kim. I wasn't lying when I said I was fucked up. I bring a lot of baggage… really bad baggage…"

"That's not…"

"Yes, it IS an issue Kim. But it's not something we have time to go into right now. " Shego took a deep breath and slowly pushed the other girl a few inches back… it wasn't meant as a rejection, merely as a way of removing the temptation to lie. How could holding the redhead feel so good? How could it clear all the darkness that hovered around her so easily? "And I promise you we WILL talk about them. There's nothing… nothing … that I want more than to… figure this out… But you have to understand I'm damaged goods. I'm that car on the lot no one wants to touch for a good reason. And I want to make sure you really understand that so…

"Understood," Kim answered quickly… almost too quickly, Shego feared. "No, really Shego, I DO understand. And… I don't disagree entirely that we need to be careful…"

"But," the redhead looked at her earnestly.

Shego saw the look in Kim's eyes, nodded for the younger girl to continue.

"This is about both of us, which makes it a WE decision. That works both ways and I can promise you I'm not the easiest person in the world to get along with either." At Shego's expression of disbelief, the angel's face creased into a rather familiar smirk. "Oh no, if you don't believe me, ask my brothers about my brief career as a soccer coach… Hell, ask RON how many days of the month he thought I was on the rag." A gentler smile now, "The thing is, if I'm the cause of a problem, I want you to tell me. Honestly. And discuss anything that's bothering you with me before you decide it's impossible. You know my family philosophy on that subject and if you can only bend so far, I swear to God that I'll do my damnedest to bend more to make up the difference."

And she wasn't just saying that, Shego realized in astonishment. She really wasn't. That kind of a promise from Kim Possible left her feeling all weak in the knees again.

"And another thing," Kim continued, "I don't like you calling yourself fucked up and damaged goods; although if ever there was proof that you were not evil, that would be it. You'd be a lousy used car salesperson. You're telling me that the ride is going to be rough? Fine. That there are flaws under that beautiful paint job? Okay. But I want a test drive to see for myself first. Let me kick the tires, slam the doors and see how fast I can make you go."

Kim's tight grin was by now nearly feral. "Which means, that as long as this shoot is going on, I'm going to have to insist that either you continue to stay at my place, or we find a location of your choosing where there's room for both of us."

"Or else…?" Shego automatically rose to the implied challenge, as her Princess no doubt anticipated she would, but inside her heart was rising even more rapidly at the complete and total commitment the Kitten seemed to be making.

"Or else, I'll spend as much time as it takes hunting you down… and crawling into your arms… until you DO give in," Kim promised, her eyes filled with guile and sparkle.

"Ookay," Shego nodded slowly, but if it wasn't for the one last thing she needed to bring up she'd have a big shit-eating grin on her face. Unfortunately, this last one WAS a major downer.

"So that brings us to the OTHER thing…"

#####

Kim saw it immediately. How Shego went from concern for Kim to something suspiciously like fear.

"Just tell me Shego. What's wrong?"

The green woman's countenance twitched slightly. "I'm sorry Kimmie. I thought I was ready for this but... I..."

"Tell me..." Kim tried to keep her voice smooth and comforting, but inside her stomach was getting another workout. "Am I pushing too fast?"

Shego must have realized her stumble instantly. "Oh! No! It's... not THIS," She shook her head to encompass the two of them, then motioned with the costume she still held in one hand. "It's this. The photoshoot."

"Kim... I wasn't kidding when I said I have a lot of issues. One of those is body image. I thought I was ready to... you know... but when Anna just dropped it on me..."

"What could you possibly have to worry about? You have the most incredible…"

"It's green Kim. Not just the skin but all the... bits. Where other people are pink, I look like… fucking Mego got a glimpse once and called me Gumby Tits. And this... " Shego indicated the costume again.

Yeah, Kim thought. Monique had taken the image of Greek Goddess to heart. And as anyone who'd seen a classical Hellenic sculpture would know... they didn't wear a lot. Especially around the upper torso… To be far, Monique's design did cover about 50% of the breasts. But it did it by covering one almost completely and leaving the other...

Hey, wasn't there something about which breast being bare indicating marital status?

Not important right now.

"It's okay Shego. I felt the same way… no, to be honest, I still do. But the thing is, when you're shooting with Anna, she makes you feel like you're the most special being in the entire universe. And the contract we have gives us the right to make sure no one sees any images we're not comfortable with. We're in control. We'll always be in control."

That seemed to get through to Shego, so Kim gave her arm a light hug and continued.

"So look at it this way. It's just going to be you and me, Anna, Cyn and Monique… and we can ask Monique and Cyn to leave if it really makes you uncomfortable but… " Okay, time for a BIG admission here, Kim, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret I've been keeping… the truth is that I LIKED Cyn being there, watching me, even though I knew she was gay. Because to Anna, I was an object of art. But to Cyn, even though she tried to hide it, there was a sexuality involved… and the thought that I looked good, to another woman, one who was attracted to other women, did incredible things to my ego. I may have little pointy tits, but the whole package put together… it's not so bad."

It wasn't hard to sell the next part at all. It came straight from the heart. "And you, you big goofy green goddess, are so fucking sexy that someone supposedly straight like me can't keep her eyes off you."

Shego was nodding slowly, taking everything that Kim had said in, so she fortunately missed the sudden flicker in Kim's own eyes, as the words "supposedly straight," bounced back through her mind. _'__**Supposedly**__ straight?' _

OMG! as Monique would say!

####

"OMG, what do you think is taking them so long?" Monique wondered out loud, looking at the door to the bedroom for about the 20th time. She'd been alternating between staring at that and her watch for the last 15 minutes.

Anna and Cyn exchanged a brief look and continued sorting filters out of Anna's huge kit into ready to use combinations. It was Cyn's turn to play the reassuring professional.

Cyn made a wry smirk. "Oh, triple checking their makeup, and I imagine they've got a little talking to do."

"Yeah," Anna agreed. "Definitely."

"What are you talking about?" Monique asked. "They didn't have anything to say at breakfast."

"You had breakfast with them?" Cyn's eyebrows arched at that unexpected tidbit.

"Well, no. They offered, but I'd eaten before I came by Kim's apartment."

"Oh hun," Cyn sighed and exchanged another look with Anna, who was obviously struggling to hold back her own giggles. Were all Middleton girls this clueless? So Shego HAD spent the night at Kim's apartment. Cyn had suspected that was how it was going to go down, but even so… "Please tell me you didn't show up unannounced."

"Well, uh…" Monique began. "Am I missing something here?"

Fortunately, Cyn was spared the decision of how to answer THAT as the door to the bedroom finally opened and Kim and Shego stepped out.

Both women were wearing the long white robes over the costumes. No doubt that irked Monique just a tad, but Cyn could see the nerves showing on both their faces, especially Shego's. Not that Cyn could blame her. She'd done a few sessions on the other side of the camera herself in the past, and with some photographers it could be incredibly intimidating. That's one of the main reason's she'd hitched her star to Anna's… the woman treated everyone as if they were her best friend and that kind of warmth and kindness inevitably produced phenomenal results.

And, true to form, Anna was already meeting Kim and Shego with a huge encouraging smile.

"You both look wonderful! With features like yours this is going to be a dream of a shoot." To Shego : "So was Kim properly scaring you with tales of what a slave-driver I was?" At the green woman's embarrassed flush, Anna grinned. "Well, don't worry, I won't be pulling out the whip today. Cyn had it washed and now I can't do a thing with it."

The photographer's eyes did a quick back and forth and quickly figured out what part of the delay must have been.

"So Kim… since you've been through this before, would you mind standing in front of the backdrop while we get the first setup finished? That way Shego can relax a few more minutes and get a feel for how we work."

####

"Sounds good to me," Kim smiled with a brief wink at the older woman. _Thank God Anna was so sharp._ "So, right there?"

"Yessss…" Anna began, but then stopped thoughtfully. "But give us just a moment. Cyn? Pull down the black backdrop and we'll see how the costumes kick against it. And Monique, could you turn on the stereo? There's already a CD in it and I've already pre-set the volume. Just be ready to hit play when I ask."

"Right," Cyn was already moving, pulling the black velvet drape down over the grey speckled canvas that had already been laid out in a huge curve running from ceiling to floor. At the same time Anna had produced a device that looked like a tiny bundt cake pan… a "ringlight"... and was attaching it around the lens on her dSLR…

"Okay," Cyn called out, placing a small "x" of black tape on a spot on the floor. "You ready for Kim now, Anna?"

"Yes," The photographer nodded, stepping back about a dozen feet so that her back was only a few inches away from the wall on the opposite side of the room as the backdrop. Kim recalled from the last time that this was so she could use a "long" lens… a telephoto… instead of a normal or wide angle. The main reason for this was that it minimized distortion due to "foreshortening," but it also had the advantage of not being so "in your face."

"Kim," She instructed. "I want you to try to relax and feel comfortable with this, so I'm going to start with some shots from behind and focus on trying to get the right effect from the costume. Feel free to do whatever you want, but don't go back further than the x mark on the floor… any further back and you could take the background down, okay?"

"Right…" Kim replied carefully, steeling herself internally, but taking the time to shoot a reassuring smile at Shego. She'd done this before. Hell, she'd done this completely naked before… now all that was REALLY exposed was one small breast. "So not the drama."

She dropped the white robe she'd been wearing and stepped onto the seeming infinite expanse of black, and somehow, looking into what was essentially nothingness, motivated her to do something in response.

Music began softly in the background. A perfect choice.

Closing her eyes, Kim shut out the outside world and began a series of kata, martial arts exercises, but intentionally slowed everything down to one fifth time. Almost unconsciously, her feet and hands took on a strange, rhythmic sense of grace as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata began.

####

Shego felt the breath go out of her as Kim was suddenly there in front of her, practically nude except for the semi-transparent strips of fabric that were as much draped around her body as actually worn. The glimpses she'd caught in gym shower the day before had been impressive, but the carefully composed lights that Anna and Cyn had set up were specifically designed to bring out the natural definition of Kim's muscles, to make her skin glow with a pearl-like sheen… combined with Kim's perfect balance and incredibly slow, elegant movements… Shego had already recognized it as the Gojushiho Shiho, or 54 steps, one of the most well known Katas… she really did look like a living sculpture…

And then there was a bright flash as Anna snapped the first test shot.

"Amazing!" Anna chortled, looking through her viewfinder. "That's amazing Kim, keep it up. Cyn, can you take down the rim light a little?" Another flash. "Perfect. Monique! Do you want to take a look at this?"

"Um, sure… " The designer answered. Until this second, Shego realized, she'd been sitting there with her jaw hanging open just as wide as Shego's. Now the girl ran over to where the photographer was and looked at the LCD display. "Wow. WOW!"

Shego wasn't sure how long it was before Anna motioned the green woman to come over to where she was and take a look. As mesmerizing as watching the slow rise and swell of Kim's motions was, the photos that Anna was taking pushed it up another notch again. In the resultant images, Kim seemed to float against an endless void, while the costume that Monique had created seemed to consist more of light than fabric.

"Ready to make some magic?" The photographer asked softly.

And, Shego realized, she was.

####

"Mind if I cut in, Princess?"

Kim turned and smiled as Shego was suddenly next to her. The other woman's body was a magnificent as she'd remembered, and Monique's costume was the perfect frame for her incredible beauty. How could the green woman ever have doubts about her own exquisiteness? Even though all that was exposed was a single perfect breast, the vision still rocked Kim to her core and she almost… almost… faltered for a second as she drank in the nectar of Shego's presence. Fortunately, the other woman had obviously had no trouble figuring out which Kata Kim had sequed into and they fell seamlessly into partnership, still using the slow relaxing, stretching motions instead of the rapid strikes that would normally be used. In a perfect ballet of weaving hands, arms and legs, they began to circle each other, coming closer and closer as their eyes lit with the joy of yet another new discovery.

Their bodies were indeed suited to do more than just fight against each other.

On the rare occasions they had fought on the same side, they had found that their ability to fall into perfect synch was unmatched. Now they segued from one Kata to the next, never breaking form, never taking their gazes from each other as the mutual admiration flowed back and forth, their "strikes" growing ever closer, their movements ever more intertwined. It was a dance, but it was also something much, much more…

Kim heard a feminine sound of awe, but she had no idea who it was. Monique? Cyn? She didn't care. All that mattered was Shego, the next step in their constantly flowing interplay… their game of give and take…

And with that thought, she realized what the next step had to be. She stepped in, so that Shego's planned miss instead made contact as it grazed past her arm in a long, slow caress . Yes! Touch. That was what had been missing.

The look of pleasure on Shego's face told Kim that she saw it too, and Kim's next attempt at Shego's torso was allowed to "hit" home. Her fingers lingered but a second, but it was amazing, feeling the rippling muscles as they worked in perfect interaction. Was that what Shego felt as her next "strike" connected with Kim's neck? Kim didn't know, but the touch set her own body ablaze, tendons and sinews acting like fiery channels, directing her building excitement to the furthest portions of her anatomy. Nerves she'd never even known she had came alive, her fingers tingled, her feet felt every wrinkle in the cloth between her and the floor, and every follicle of hair on her head was standing on end. The pounding of her heart drowned out the music, the sound of her own lungs pumping, as all of her attention focused on one thing… on one person… only.

And still Shego matched her. Move for move. Touch for touch.

Now the "blows" were coming quicker, as both she and Shego dutifully accepted their "punishment" for straying from the perfect executions they were capable of. But what was truly so incredible was that even when they were intentionally missing, intentionally making a "misstep," they were STILL in perfect synchronization. It wasn't mind reading, it was a body language so perfectly attuned to each other that it was as clear as spoken words. And with each new contact, each new weave, they learned even more about each other. Shared new feelings, emotions and…

"Ladies?"

Anna's soft cough brought them back to reality and Kim realized that she and Shego were once again merely inches from each other. She could feel the green woman's breath coming hard, rippling through her own hair, and she knew that her own face must be… '_Oh my God,'_ she thought as focused thought returned from the distant corner of her mind where it had been banished. _'I hope I'm not as visibly aroused as I'm feeling but…' _

At least everyone else in the room seemed to be looking the same way. Cyn's reactions were the most obvious… she was sweating visibly, her nipples prominently erect. Anna was more conservative, but there was a definite blush across her cheeks. Shego… well, Kim KNEW how Shego was feeling on an almost intimate level. And Monique…

Monique appeared to be in a profound state of shock. Leaning weakly back against the couch, her hands were once again in front of her mouth, her eyes wide; but it was clear that her befuddlement as to what had been going on that morning had been cleared up in rather explicit fashion. Oh yeah, Monique. Looks like your best friend may be…

Oh what the hell, SOMEONE was bound to figure it out eventually.

So Kim did what she'd been dying to do all morning and leaned into Shego for a kiss.


	12. Chapter 12

_Okey dokey. Having been informed that my fondness for cliffhangers coupled with my announcement that I might be slowing down my posting schedule at bit, I've discovered that there are some out there who think I'm a bit on the cruel side when it comes to where I leave off. To those individuals I say: Sucks to be you! Ha! Hey, you show me a better way to make sure people come back to your story quickly (short of paying them) and I'll try that. In the meantime, I'll follow the tried and true 'leave 'em hanging and wanting more" philosophy. However, as a bit of a concession, I hit a point with this latest chapter where I decided maybe I could let it go a little early. Normally I try to get these things to be at least 4,000 words, but this time… this ONE time… I'll let one slide out on the light side. _

_Okay, to be honest, the next bit would have made for a really, really long chapter, so now it's 13 that's going to be a doozey.. in every Possible way. Oh wait, am I being evil again? As Senor Senior Sr. would say, let us practice our evil laughs: Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!  
_

_Thanks again for all the reviews, and for those who aren't reviewing but just reading, I'd appreciate knowing what you feel as well. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, Wade Load, the Drs. Possible- Anne and James, the Tweebs Possible - Jim and Tim, DNAmy, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr. and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Anna and Cyn are unique to this story but if you want to use 'em, go right ahead. Heck, if you want to use Jose the GJ agent, he's free too. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 12

####

It was a fairly chaste kiss, just a little peck… not one that you'd call passionate at all, really… but the fact that it had even happened, let alone in front of others, left Shego blinking in stunned bewilderment. _'What part of going slow don't you get, Princess?'_ She gasped as the redhead's smiling face pulled away from her with an incredibly smug look of satisfaction glinting in her half-lidded green-eyes.

And then Shego snapped to the fact that the gesture hadn't been intended as strictly romantic gesture… because she knew… KNEW… that if Kim had truly intended to lay into her with a real kiss, she would probably have been left lying on the floor, panting for breath.

No, that quick and unexpected touch on her lips had been nothing less than a statement of territoriality. Kim had just marked her, in the same way a cat marks what it considers her own property, and it had also been an open statement, a declaration that Kim had no problems with anyone else knowing exactly how she felt about Shego.

The Kitten had just dug in her little claws and it would be hell ever detaching her again.

Assuming Shego was actually foolish enough to want that.

"Yes, well… so much for my worries about the two of you turning out to be be camera shy," Anna cracked sarcastically, finally breaking the silence. "However, Cyn and I need to change out some of the lighting elements, so if you two would like to give it a rest for a few minutes…?"

"Um, yeah," Shego agreed, watching with a dazed combination of pleasure, consternation and amusement as the smaller girl gave her another of those smug little smiles, then padded across the room with seemingly total composure, to where Monique was still sitting, jaw askew, on the sofa. A quick pounce and Kim was beside her friend, flopping back with exaggerated exhaustion… and it WOULD be the side with the bare breast that was closest to the dazed designer. _'And I thought I was evil?'_ Shego mused_, 'If this little minx ever decided to conquer the world, there's nothing that could stop her!" _

"So Monique," Kim grinned. "Anything new with _you_ lately?"

####

Monique looked back at the girl wearing Kim Possible's body and felt her mind reeling. All the weird cues she'd been getting all morning were suddenly very self-explanatory… she'd even had the brief thought about how awkward it would have been if Kim had had a GUY over and…

OMG really seemed like such a massive understatement.

Kim? Kim was a…?

"Uh…" Monique began before the air in her lungs gave out. Oh yes, that was certainly graceful. The problem was, she had no ready-to go acronyms for this particular situation.

And it WAS an annoying habit, really. Almost as annoying as trying NOT to look at Kim's bobbing naked breast. What the hell had she been thinking, designing that costume? DNSAYBFB! Do Not Stare At Your Best Friend's Boobies!

"So, um… How long?" She finally spit out, and she wasn't quite sure how to process the strange little amused look that crossed her girlfriend… FRIEND, just FRIEND…'s face.

"Honestly, Monique? I really don't know," The corners of Kim's mouth were tucked up like a smile but the look in her eyes seemed to indicate that her confession of a complete loss wasn't entirely unfounded. "I think there must have been something there for years but… I finally put it all together this morning at… oh, just about the same moment you buzzed the doorbell."

"Oh," Monique responded simply, then added another long "Ohhhh…" as Cyn's earlier comments were now making perfect sense. Talk about being the third wheel, the fly in the ointment, the screen door on the submarine… okay, maybe that last one was a little silly, but still…

"Yeah, and then you had to give us these dang costumes," Kim giggled. "Once I saw Shego in it I just couldn't control myself."

"Control doesn't seem to be a word in your vocabulary these days, Princess," Shego muttered, offering Kim an iced bottle of water that matched the one in her own hands. Unlike Kim, she'd taken the time to put her white robe back on, a gesture Monique greatly appreciated. "Can I sit here or is this still 'private friend time'?"

The question was addressed to both of them, but Kim merely passed it on to Monique.

"um… uh… no. It's okay…" Monique managed. "Any friend of Kim's… in a strictly platonic sense, that is… you know."

Monique's voice trailed off again as she looked back and forth from Kim to Shego.

"I wish I did," the green woman grinned sourly as she plotzed down on the sofa next to Kim. "All these years, I've been thinking I understood how this one's mind works, and now she's determined to prove me wrong."

"Mmm," Kim grunted in the affirmative, taking a long, deep swallow from the water bottle. "Seems to me that that shoe fits a certain green foot, too. There's been a lot of eye-opening going on both ways. Maybe I'm overreacting to… you know… but I don't regret it. There's something between us that's just too powerful to ignore." A tight smile. "And I'm done ignoring things."

One of THOSE looks bounced back and forth between Kim and Shego.

"Just remember, Princess… just because you've kissed a frog doesn't mean it's going to turn into a handsome prince."

"I'd say it's becoming increasingly more evident that I was never really looking for a Prince." Kim sighed, her face taking on a dewy-eyed expression as her free hand reached out and touched Shego's arm possessively. "Besides, I like frogs. And…" Kim had rolled over so that her mouth was approaching a certain pale ear as she stage-whispered. "There's only one thing a Prince has that a frog doesn't."

"Yeah…?" Shego drawled, being pulled in despite the fact that she knew it was a set-up. "And what's that, punkin?"

"A cock."

For some reason, that set both Shego and Kim off into huge paroxysms of laughter.

Monique watched the interplay with fascination. She hadn't seen Kim laugh like that in months; and even if the cause was a decidedly un-Kim-like joke, it was still a revelation. Frankly, she had begun to worry if her friend was on her way to a nervous breakdown, and she knew that Kim's parents had been suspecting the same thing. First there'd been the breakup with Ron… Kim had sworn it was nothing at the time, that things were back the way "they should be" but then there'd been a sense Monique had picked up that it had left Kim adrift somehow. Then something had happened on one of her missions… Kim had never opened up about it but it must have been something really bad… because after that Kim had become almost a shade of her former self, spending all her non-mission time training in a half-dozen new martial arts rather than socializing. And then, moving into that horrible apartment… Monique had only visited her there a few times and the place gave her the creeps, but she WOULD have gone over more often if Kim had asked. But Shadow Kim had seemed set on 'protecting' her friends and family by isolating herself, and nothing Monique or Wade had come up with to try to break down those barriers really seemed to work. And to make it worse, Monique knew for a fact that she had more frequent personal contact with Kim than her own parents did… something she had felt horribly guilty about every time she had to go to the Space Center and make idle chat with James.

And now this.

She had been mesmerized by their interaction during the photo shoot, at how intense their awareness of each other seemed to be… Okay, to be honest, she'd had the feeling that they were practically having sex in front of her, and she obviously hadn't the only one. Cyn's whispered comment had been _"I'd tell them to get a room, but we're already in one."_ Now the two of them were sitting there, talking and joking like a couple that had been in a relationship for years. And, for all intents and purposes, now that Monique thought about it, they essentially had. She'd always wondered why, of all the villains whose pictures had graced the 'rogues gallery' on the inside of Kim's locker, there'd only been one picture that never changed. The only one that wasn't a standard wanted poster. The only one that was a full body shot… grabbed, according to Wade, from a video capture of one of their very first encounters.

In retrospect, the fact that Kim's dating career in high school could be reduced down to just three boys, one of whom was her best friend since pre-K, the second a passing crush whose name no longer caused Kim to even look up in interest and a third who had turned out to not even be human but a construct specifically designed to appeal to Kim, made even more sense. Kim had never had many close friends either, and Monique had tentatively begun to believe that Kim might have actually been asexual, uninterested in anyone that way. And THAT caused her thoughts to run back to Kim's "other best friend," the one that had actually made Monique jealous of her time with Kim. Because it was clear now that while the so-called Miss Go really was just a tiny portion of the full Shego personality, the portion that had been presented was real and completely genuine. Monique thought back to that morning, how Shego had practically hovered about Kim, how concerned she'd been about Kim eating properly and… and being extra polite to a 'friend' who'd just barged in on what was obviously an already complicated moment.

There was a word for that kind of attention; a word that Monique would never have expected to pair up with the person she'd believed to be Shego. Especially when the other focus of that word was her best friend… a friend that she really could have been a better friend to, if only she'd known how.

But fortunately, it was something that Shego had known. And the more Monique watched the no-longer-so-strange green woman and her friend talking… touching… the more she become convinced of the fact that some people were simply fated to be together, and that on some fundamental level, Kim had apparently always understood this so intuitively that it had never even reached conscious thought. Kim hadn't been uninterested. She'd been waiting.

It had taken an attack from another planet to finally put them on the same side, but Monique had SEEN the display they'd just put on. Whatever it was that was going on between them, it was beyond intense, bordering on telepathy, and while Monique was willing to swear on a stack of bibles that she was straight, if she'd been given the chance to have something like that for herself, she'd have waited forever… and a little thing like gender probably wouldn't have stopped her either.

And that's why, Monique suddenly understood, she was feeling so weirded out. The 'weirdness' wasn't about her best friend turning out to be gay at all. It was about how JOYFUL she, Monique, was that Kim had finally figured out what had been holding her back, what she needed to make her life whole.

Which is why it came as no surprise that she felt her own hand going out and grasping Kim's as soon as the redhead had set her bottle down, or the tears that came to her eyes as she told Kim… and, yes, Shego… the truth straight from her heart.

"I'm so happy for you."

####

Kim looked back at her friend and felt her heart melt. She'd been so worried about how Monique might take this, but she'd chosen to simply forge ahead because… well, it had to have been getting pretty clear to anyone in the room that SOMETHING was going on between her and Shego, and Kim would rather just have it out in the open rather than pussyfoot around the subject.

Belatedly, of course, she'd realized that she hadn't asked Shego about doing so first, which considering her talk of making "we" decisions just a few minutes ago, had her feeling mighty guilty. Fortunately, the green woman seemed more bemused by the whole situation… she had probably worked out the same chain of events in her head and decided it was inevitable with this small group… but she made a promise to herself to talk EVERYTHING over with Shego before she made any more unilateral announcements of this sort.

For that matter, she admitted, she wasn't even sure that Shego'd actually made up her mind about where Kim fit in HER life yet. They still had to talk… and apparently it was going to be a long talk… but Kim had already made up her mind that the two of them were going to be something to each other. She was confident in herself enough to know that she could find some way to get Shego to at least be… what was the phrase… a friend with benefits? That much was self-evident from what kept happening to them physically. Beyond that… Kim wasn't about to delude herself into thinking it would be easy, but for the first time in a long time, she knew exactly what she wanted and was willing to do just about anything to get her.

But in the meantime, she had a lot of making up to do with Monique. The other girl… woman's… words of support meant the world to her, and the way those words made her feel had brought with it the dawning comprehension that she, Kim, hadn't been trusting enough of her friend to share what she'd been going through. That was something that was going to have to change if she was going to remain the Kim Possible she wanted to be. Her parents, too, had been getting the short end of the stick, and Kim hoped that Shego would be willing to take them into their confidence as well. The rest of the world could go to hell, but she wanted her friends and family back, and she wanted Shego to be accepted by them.

In the meantime, the idea that had popped into her head earlier needed discussion, and now was as good a time as any.

"Monique, about the idea of working with the Tweebs…" She began.

To her relief, Monique smiled. "Girlfriend… I… I'm really going to have to come up with something else to call you if I don't want big, green and scary there to take offense, aren't I? Now that I know what I was interrupting, I can see why you'd spring that on me, but…"

"I was serious."Kim interrupted softly. "But not just for this photo shoot."

"Huh?" Okay, now she'd managed to completely baffle her friend.

"Just answer this question and I'll know whether my idea is crazy or not. If you could extrude these costumes, could you extrude ANY Club Banana design?"

Monique's brow crinkled. "Well, sure, theoretically. I'd have to get clearance from the designers, but technically it would be simple. But why would you want to?"

"Because those electronic looms can make a wide variety of cloth, up to and including the fabric of my Centurion suit."

Monique was starting to get the idea, her jaw dropping again.

"So," Kim smiled thinly. "I'm looking at upgrading my entire wardrobe to something that's at least bullet-proof. And as long as we're doing that, I'd like to see what other extras you, Wade and the Tweebs can work into to the linings to help keep me alive."

####

Camille Leon stepped off the ramp back onto the small seaplane and showed her million Euro smile. That was the easiest money she had ever made. No armed guards, no long list of personal mannerisms to learn and copy… not even the exercise involved in a basic snatch and grab!

No, all she'd had to do was sell some information… and the info wasn't even really all that big a secret. The thing was, although the nano-morphing technology that allowed her face and skin tone to change at will was something that only she had ever been able to do, the truth was that the quick-hair change was actually the work of someone else… oh, Camille COULD change her hair color, but only the LIVING follicles that were still in her scalp. If she'd waited for those to grow out, it would be weeks… months even… before she could attempt a new look. Instead, she'd originally opted to use a series of wigs and dyes, but ultimately had found a much more practical solution… one that came from an outside vendor who'd provided the product ready-made.

And she'd just sold the secret of that product, one she didn't even own, to an idiot for a ridiculous sum of money. Of course, DNAmy herself was currently doing hard time in a GJ facility two miles beneath the Sandia Mountains just East of Albuquerque, but she was set to get out on an early release program in just a few months. At that point, the crazed gene wrangler would probably have been willing to sell it for pocket change, just to get back on her feet.

But Noooo, Camille's client couldn't wait that long. He had to have the formula now, so Camille had gladly handed over two bottles of her existing supply and one bottle of the activator… enough for several complete and permanent DNA based changes that would permanently convert black hair to that of a natural redhead… for a cool million Euros!

Ha! It was true, Camille reflected as she sat down on the small charter and contemplated what she would do next. There really was a sucker born every minute… especially when the sucker's name was Senor Senior Jr.!


	13. Chapter 13

_Looking at the premise that initially spawned ATCOTS, it seems fitting to note that Oct. 19 marks the release of __**MIRRORS 2**__, the first film in which the voice of Kim Possible's herself, __**Christy Carlson Romano**__, has a full nude scene. As noted in previous forwards here, the nude scene/photo shoot has now become an almost de rigueur rite of passage that's somehow necessary for people to disassociate a young performer from Disney (and Disney-esque) roles, which brings up the question as to whether, before agreeing to be in a Disney product, an actress should be warned that in order to remain "marketable," they will almost inevitably have to commit to a film somewhere down the line that requires nudity. (For young actors, similarly, a run in an off Broadway production of Equus and fondling a horse seems to be equally inevitable.) Should Disney films come with a label that says may inspire nudity? This sounds like a good subject for Congress to study while they're pretending not to notice that our national highway infrastructure and electrical grid are on the verge of collapse. Please note that I, personally, applaud Ms Romano for both her commitment to her art and her quite well maintained physique, although I'd have preferred for the more cerebral __**SUICIDE GIRLS**__ to have been the first of her more mature themed films to make release… but that's neither here nor there. However, for those interested in perusing this "fine" example of the horror genre for its titillating qualities, (quotation marked ratings subject to change as I haven't seen it, being a direct to video title and all) I'd like to point out something that tends to be forgotten in this internet driven age: Specifically, that illegally downloading or otherwise viewing said film without payment completely nullifies a good portion of Ms. Romano's intent in making this career choice. In other words, if the film is financially successful, and any small level of success can be traced back specifically to interest in CCR, then more work will flow her way. If, instead, said DVD is unsuccessful, that WILL reflect negatively in some way on the cast involved, which may result in less CCR in the future, especially less naked CCR. On the other hand, hits on Mr. Nude's Nudie-shots and similar websites don't pay Ms. Romano a damn thing; and while fan-fic writers may choose to make their work available for free, most of the actors I work with are far more interested in being able to pay for next week's groceries. Therefore, might I humbly encourage those interested in viewing to legitimately rent or, preferably, buy a copy of said film and then post your reasons for buying it somewhere where Hollywood money-types can see it. Amazon's review page is nice, as it links to their affiliated Internet Movie Data Base. _

_Oh, yeah, and that bit about slowing down a bit. What can I say? I had a few spare hours this afternoon. Hope you enjoy this chapter. I promised a doozey last time and I hope it delivers. Reviews greatly appreciated.  
_

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, Wade Load, the Drs. Possible- Anne and James, the Tweebs Possible - Jim and Tim, Bonnie Rockwaller, Senor Senior Jr. and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Anna and Cyn are unique to this story but if you want to use 'em, go right ahead. Heck, if you want to use Jose the GJ agent, he's free too. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

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AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 13

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"So are we going to talk now?" Kim looked across the small apartment at Shego, who'd just emerged from her designated room in a fresh new T-shirt and shorts combo. The last hour or so had been a study in silence, as each of the women brooded on what they knew was going to be a critical point in their budding relationship. On the one hand, Kim really wanted to get this over with, but on the other, she was worried about what new ammo Shego was going to add to the "maybe we should go slowly" and "maybe this is a bad idea" arguments.

Although, frankly, given that she'd just discovered how many people were entertaining fantasies of killing her, Kim was personally at the point where she'd rather go for what she knew she could have than wait for some hypothetical point in time where things might "get better."

They'd been getting quieter all day as this moment approached. They'd done a few dozen more tests with Anna and Kim had to admit that she'd been impressed at the initial results… even her exposed breast hadn't looked too odd… although it hadn't looked right either until she finally snapped to the fact that she'd never actually seen it correctly before, having only observed it looking down or reversed in the mirror. Fortunately, with Shego there, who was going to notice Kim? At least now she understood what Anna had meant when she kept using the word "chemistry," though Kim thought that "pheromones" might be more a more appropriate term. Looking at the eye contact between herself and Shego was more than a little frightening… she'd never seen that kind of expression on her own face before and it… well, she had to wonder if it was natural to get aroused looking at a picture of yourself in a state of arousal? No wonder everyone had been looking at them like _'that'_ even before she dropped the K-bomb on Shego's lips. Good God Possible!

And that same sensual energy had run under everything that they did that afternoon, though they did finally become a little better at keeping their libidos under control. At least Anna had finally found a combination of on-light and in-camera filters that she felt did justice to both their skin tones, so they could stop tormenting each other. Things had only begun to cool down once they'd gone back to Monique's designs again and had a serious discussion as to what was practical, roughing out ideas to make them more appropriate for the kind of movement Kim and Shego wanted to be able to do. Kim was surprised how much she'd been pulled into the process, but while what they'd shot today would probably be acceptable to most people, it was the general consensus of everyone involved that they'd barely dipped their toes in the well of possibilities, with the two martial artists especially wanting to do something that involved more kinetic motion.

Of course, THAT had lead to a search for likely places to shoot, and it had turned out that that was going to be more difficult to put together than they had hoped… in fact, just finding a suitable building to shoot in seemed like it was going to be problematical. A wide open structure with a high roof would be best, but none of the photo studios in the Middleton area were really suitable and Anna had already nixed the Police Gym as being way too difficult to work with… the combination of florescent, halogen and natural light from the windows near the ceiling would not only be difficult to balance, but also had intruded in almost every test shot Anna had run off the previous night. A subsequent check of all the local gyms and dojos had revealed that all of those were already booked solid. Kim had forgotten that the Lowardian's swath through downtown Middleton had taken out both the old YM & WCAs, as well as the downtown college annex's gymnasium AND the local gymnastics training center. As a result, all the students, classes that normally used those facilities were being distributed among the surviving schools and gyms, which left very little time and space open. That meant they were probably going to have to shoot in the middle of the night, or find an empty warehouse… also in short supply these days… and truck in their own mats and lighting.

Kim had put off contacting the Tweebs for the day. She had a feeling that a major family pow-wow was about to happen and she wanted some distraction ammunition on hand in case she needed her brothers to disappear for a bit. It was on the first thing to do tomorrow list… once the subjects of the impending conversation were resolved. She DID check in with Wade, but he told her that things were surprisingly calm. More likely, she suspected, he was rerouting some of the marginal missions he only gave her as busy work in order to give her time to concentrate on the photo shoot. Talking to Wade had also brought about an _interesting_ moment for herself… she'd almost offered to let him see some of what they'd shot before she remembered how much of her was exposed. It was one thing for Monique to see her like that, but other people she knew? Oddly, the thought of strangers seeing them was bothering her less and less, as what Anna was producing really was more like fine art than centerfold material. But Ron? Or, when they were old enough, the Tweebs? That was a very freaky thought.

Cyn had surprised them by offering to take everyone to a club she'd heard about for a late working lunch, but Monique begged off… she had a "real date" of her own to get ready for… and as both Kim and Shego were starting to feel the weight of what was yet to come pressing down on them, they'd made their excuses as well and headed for the Sloth, which was still where Kim had left it the previous morning. At that point, the one thing that they absolutely HAD to do before returning to the apartment was go grocery shopping in a real supermarket. Having learned what Kim had (pretty much nothing that Shego deemed edible) and what she needed (just about anything that Shego deemed edible,) Shego was free to go to town and had knocked together what seemed to Kim like a huge list of items. Normally Kim dreaded shopping… the fact that most items on the shelf seemed to be screaming '_go away! You'll just burn me!_' probably had more than a little to do with that… but the whole experience had actually turned out to be quite fun, especially since Kim was able to deposit the checks Monique had brought by in the superstore's bank. That had taken her account balance up from a scary $29.70 to just over 6 grand, and she therefore felt comfortable insisting that she pay for the groceries if Shego was cooking.

Kim DID think that Shego was getting a little annoyed with her at one point though, until she'd managed to explain that Kim really wasn't just automatically saying "yes" to everything the green woman suggested. It was just that it all really did sound good to her. Although there had been a point in her life where Kim had had foods she strongly disliked… pickled beets, for example… these days the truth was that Kim would eat just about anything put in front of her; up to and including a fairly large range of insects. Well, animals that people normally kept as pets were out, of course, as was anything with hands, but when you were in the middle of a jungle and someone put a bowl in front of you, you learned to eat what you were given and smile. And most of it wasn't bad at all, once you ignored what it actually looked like.

That had led to a long discussion about various regional menus they'd sampled over the years, with it turning out that both of them had a special predilection for any cuisine with a strong focus on curries - Thai, Japanese, Malaysian, Indian… With that in mind, a huge bag of rice joined the basket once Kim had confirmed that she did, in fact, have a working Rice Cooker. Nearly two hundred dollars later, they had made a fairly good start towards what Shego considered an "acceptable" start on detoxifying Kim's digestive tract. But as the decision between paper and plastic was being made, the conversation began to dry up, and the drive back to Kim's apartment ended up feeling unlike a very long, very horizontal elevator ride.

On arriving back at Kim's home base, they had worked quickly and efficiently together to put away the food and staples, then had taken turns using the shower and changing. (With Kim doing a hasty pickup of the living room while Shego was otherwise occupied. It wasn't perfection, but at least the majority of the floor was now clear. She just hoped Shego didn't look inside Kim's room, where most of the boxes had migrated into a large sloppy pile.)

Which brought them here.

"Yeah…" Shego sighed. "Kitchen table or couch?"

"Couch," Kim decided instantly, hoping that the Karma from this morning would carry over in a positive fashion.

"'Kay," Shego agreed, ambling over to the overstuffed piece of furniture and placing herself on the opposite end… the same end that Kim had taken the previous night.

Kim situated herself where Shego had been. She preferred the other side, but she had hopes she'd be there soon enough.

"So…" she began after another long moment in which no one said anything.

"So what?" Shego came back with reflexively.

"So, you were going to tell me all these reasons why you thought we SHOULDN'T be trying this."

Shego frowned. "Now you're just putting words in my mouth. I never said _'shouldn't'_ but…

"But…?"

The green woman just turned it back on her, "Tell you what, Princess, why don't you tell me why you think we SHOULD try being together."

"Hmmm… okay," Kim began to tick them off on her fingers. "We have a lot in common, we obviously like each other and enjoy each other's company, and if what we keep feeling while we fight is any indication, the sex would be absolutely mind-blowing."

Shego's eyes narrowed at the mention of the "s" word, but nodded. "Okay, I'll grant two of those, but _'a lot in common'_ may be a stretch."

"Just because we've approached things from different sides doesn't mean we're not addressing the same issues," Kim fired back, then noticed something. "Hey! You're not wearing the black lipstick!"

"Um, no." Shego seemed to blush. "I kinda thought I didn't have to around you. Now."

"I didn't say you did," Kim smiled, admiring the shade of Shego's lips and wondering how far in the green went. "I like the way you're colored. Just in case I haven't managed to make this perfectly clear, I think you're one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen."

Now the blush was in full force. "Uh… thanks… But back to the subject. You DO remember that I'm still a wanted woman in a lot of places, right? That there's always going to be the chance that someone coming after me is going to get you by mistake?"

Kim had been prepared for that one. "That would be a great argument if it wasn't for the fact that, as you yourself pointed out, there are a lot of people gunning for me, too. The way I figure it, at least some of those people overlap, so if we stick together we double our effectiveness against them while reducing the overall odds against us."

"Did you really take honors math?" Shego questioned skeptically.

"Straight A's, so not the drama," Kim confirmed, inching forward. "And in any case, you've shown me that I have a lot to learn about all this. So if you stay and train me what to do, you'll be increasing my odds again. Point in my favor I think."

"Like you'd let me train you," Shego leered sarcastically.

"Oh, you might be surprised at what I'd let you do to me," Kim leered back, but with a whole different emphasis.

"Behave Princess." Shego was back to all-business again. "Fine, okay. Let's say that that's a wash. There's also your reputation to think of."

"Do I even have to address that?" Kim laughed. "I've posed naked for a calendar seen by millions of people, WE'RE posing for another one together. I am SO not the good girl anymore."

"A CHARITY calendar," Shego pointed out. "And I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about your… sexuality. You know. It getting out."

Now it was Kim's turn to raise an eyebrow in surprise. "Are you saying there's something WRONG with liking another woman?"

"No but…"

"I am what I am Shego. I'm not going to hide that." Kim exhaled deeply. "It's… going to be a little bit uncomfortable coming out with that fact, but I'd rather have to deal with people who have an issue with it than lie about something as basic as who I am." A Possible angle presented itself. "Now, I admit I AM a little put off by the idea of going into some bar looking for strangers to have sex with, so, again, I think you'd be helping my reputation in that respect."

"Okay, let's cut to the big ones then," Shego growled, not noticing that Kim had scooted a little forward one more time. "I'm evil, Kimmie. Have you forgotten that?"

"Oh bullshit. If you were evil you'd be taking advantage of me right now, and not trying to give me all these ways to wiggle out of it." Kim thought of several things she could say to tie in with the word wiggle, but decided against it. For the moment. "No Shego, you've told me your definition of evil, and maybe there was a time when you did fit that description. But that's not who you are now and we both know it."

Again, Shego had no response except to look away in embarrassment.

"AND…" Kim continued with extra emphasis, "For someone to have lived through some of the things you've lived through, to have NOT come out of it as some kind of monster indicates just what a really good person you started out as."

Shego rolled her eyes, making a face. "Okay, now you're laying it on way too thick."

"Am I?" Kim shrugged. "You may not be a shining paragon of virtue, but you've saved my life too many times for me to ever believe the evil story again. Can we try a different tact?"

"The fact that I'm a freak of nature?"

"Don't care. See 'most beautiful thing I've ever seen' mentioned previously. That's like Starry Night being worried about having been painted by Van Gogh."

"You're comparing me to something by Van Gogh?" Shego goggled.

"Why not? His work defies classification and so do you. Still beautiful though."

"er….uh huh." Shego looked at Kim nervously. She had obviously now noticed that Kim was halfway across the sofa. "What about the smell?"

Kim blinked on that one. "Smell?"

"Oh, stop being so polite," Shego looked at her in disbelief. "I REEK Kimmie. The damn plasma makes me smell like a fireplace. You HAVE noticed that, right?"

"Uh… that sandalwood scent isn't a perfume…?" Kim hazarded a guess.

"Sandalwood?" Now it was Shego who was baffled. "No, it's more like ashes and… That's why I always travel with my own linens…"

"Oh my God," Kim laughed. "I think we just discovered a new super-power you didn't know you had!"

"What?" Shego double-taked. "What?"

"You must be smelling on a different plane from we normal folks… like dogs hear different frequencies from people or bees can see in ultra-violet. I think you can smell plasma that I can't" Kim worked it out. "Tell me, has anyone ELSE ever mentioned it?"

Shego had a totally stunned look on her face. "My brothers…"

"Who also have comet mutations," Kim grinned, sliding forward again. "Trust me Shego, I don't find the way you smell offensive at all. In fact…"

"Back Princess! Back!" Shego defended her end of the sofa. "Damnit! Is there anything I could say that WOULD scare you off?"

Kim pulled back a quarter of an inch and tried to give that fair consideration, coming up blank. "Short of a life-threatening, infectious disease for which there's no known control? Not cure, control, mind you. I'm fully willing to risk something like genital herpes or warts as long as we take proper precautions."

"Eww! I keep forgetting that your mom's a doctor. And I don't have anything like that anyway. Hell, I'm not sure if I can even GET something like that. Except for the occasional cold, my body seems to repel just about any bug I've ever come into contact with."

"Then I don't see…" Kim began, but was cut off as Shego suddenly exploded!

"The sex would be lousy!"

"What?" Kim triple-taked.

Shego looked away again, and her voice was very soft when she finally continued.

"Sex. I've kinda got issues there too."

Kim made the connection.

"Because of the…?"

"Yes… No. It's all related." Shego gritted her teeth but forced out an explanation. "The truth is I don't even know if I was… It all re-healed before I was really conscious again. But that's part of the problem, Kim. I ALWAYS reheal. So every time I'm… you know… a virgin again. And because everything's so much stronger than on normal people, it really… "

"Hurts?" Kim questioned. "Is it that bad?"

"Well, yeah, you know what it was like for you and…" Shego's voice dropped off as she saw Kim shaking her head. "Oh sweet Jesus! You're a virgin?"

"Three boyfriends, none of whom ever got past second base," Kim admitted with a blush. "I was kinda busy saving the world and stuff."

"Oh that's just rich," Shego laughed at the pathetic-ness of the situation. "So YOU won't know what you're doing and all I know is from a few half hearted fumblings and Hego's collection of gay porn!"

"I think I can figure out…" Kim began. "Wait. HEGO's GAY?"

Now Shego's face was REALLY flushed. "Uh yeah, like it's not obvious? You never thought that all that marching around making big public statements about moral uprightness wasn't a front? Trust me, stick a couple of gardenias on him and you could use him as a float in a pride parade if he'd ever come out." Shego grinned at Kim's snort of amusement. "The funny part is that Taurus image he shot for their calendar is becoming a big hit in the gay bookstores, and according to Mego, Hego's so tickled about it that he's already pushing for another star-themed calendar just so he can do Ursa Major.

"The big bear?" Kim gasped. "Oh my God…"

"Yeah, but Mego's fighting it because then he'd have to be the little dipper," Shego confided. "And you can't repeat any of that, you know."

"As if I wanted to," Kim scoffed. "But we're getting off the subject, and now that I think about it, I think I'm feeling a little insulted."

Shego looked at her in alarm. "Insulted? But…"

"Family Motto," Kim growled. "ANYTHING is Possible for a Possible."

"Yeah, but Kim…" Shego began. "I mean I was…"

"So not interested in apologies right now. You've really ticked me off! You really think I can't figure out something simple like foreplay?"

"well… uh… when you put it that way…"

Kim grabbed Shego's shoulder with one hand as the rest of her body continued closing the distance, an evil glint in her eye.

"Note serious face. One way or another, I'm going to make you eat those words."

Shego's eyes went wide. "K… Kim?"

"That's PRINCESS Kim to you," Kim snarled, but the huge grin hiding beneath it was starting to slip out. "Have you forgotten what our relationship is?"

"Uh… maybe you should fill me in on that," Shego replied, slipping out of Kim's grasp and pushing herself away from the sofa in a single motion… but there was a smile of anticipation tugging at the edge of her own lips. Was Miss Priss really going to…?

Oh yes she was. Kim leaped as she screamed "YOU WORSHIP ME!"

Shego almost dodged the attack… almost, because avoiding Kim completely wouldn't have been anywhere near as much fun. Instead she shoved the flying body to the side, directing her back towards the floor.

Kim flipped even as she felt Shego's hands ram into her side. One of her own hands lashed out, snagging Shego's arm in a long caressing grab that pulled the green woman off her feet. That was all the imbalance Kim needed to send her opponent flying over her own head. And in that split second, Kim hit the ground beneath the ex-villain's arc, landing in in a catlike sprawl that converted to a backwards spring as she was once again bounding directly for Shego, her tiny hands forming claws that matched Shego's own.

But in that fraction of a second, Shego anticipated the lunge and came up with her own natural talons. The cloth of Kim's shirt gave way with a loud ripping sound and suddenly the redhead's front was half exposed. That distracted Shego just long enough for Kim to wrap herself around the jade Goddess' neck, pulling her down and backwards.

In the distance, Kim heard the sound of the plasma TV going over with a crash, but it was of no more importance that the price of tea in China. Who the fuck needed a TV when they had THIS to amuse themselves?

Shego heaved herself back to her feet, Kim still wrapped around her neck like a spitting, clawing scarf and slammed herself, Kim first, into the wall. The Kevlar reinforced paneling gave with a might crack and dust began to sprinkle from the ceiling, but what was more important was that it gave her time to hold the Kitten still long enough to smash a mighty kiss against her growling lips.

Too soon, Kim thought, allowing her tongue to snake out for one brief taste even as she folded both legs into Shego's stomach and kicked the woman away with enough force to flatten a dozen henchmen.

And Shego loved it. The sound of the opposite wall shattering behind her was like music to her ears as she readied her next attack. Now she and Kim were circling each other, warily but eagerly, each looking for the next opening in the others' defense. In and out they dodged, the actions of the photo session repeating themselves without the hindering presence of photographers, photographer's assistants or freaked out friends!

More, Kim thought, we need More! "What's the matter Shego? So eager to get to first base that you forgot how to turn the plasma on?"

"_Oh it was going to be like THAT, was it?"_ Shego thought as an excited growl ripped through her body. Instantly her hands were ablaze, at the lowest temperature she could manage but still enough to do serious damage if she wasn't…

GODAMN! That was what the Kitten had been playing at! In the split second where Shego had had to focus on her flames, Kim had rolled in under her guard with a magazine… A MAGAZINE… folded up into an improvised _yantok _that she stabbed into Shego's gut, then shoved into Shego's left hand where it spontaneously combusted in an explosion of sparks and burning embers! And if THAT wasn't enough, somehow the Princess had also managed to undo the top of Shego's own shorts!

"Fireproof carpet!" Kim exulted. "Don't stop!" And with that she rammed headfirst into Shego AGAIN, taking the woman down with her. Together they slammed into the sofa, which flipped, dumping them on the other side. They came up again in a clinch, then went down, up, then down again. Shego was finding it increasingly impossible to contain the redhead, whose array of hand-to-hand holds was proving surprising adept at keeping them rolling across the floor until the green woman found herself wedged against a far wall.

"Give up… yet?" Kim grunted as her face plowed into Shego's for another wild kiss, her hands tearing at Shego's clothing even as she completely ignored the flaming arms on either side of her.

"Fuck you!" Shego fired back, literally, one glowing hand taking out the rest of Kim's shirt. That would probably leave a light burn behind, but the girl was really asking for it. Damn, that last kiss had been AMAZING!

"That's the FUCKING idea!" Kim laughed, burying her face between Shego's breasts before biting… BITING.. on the upper slope of the left green mountain! "Second Base!"

"OW!" Shego gasped in both surprise and pleasure. Somehow she had the presence of mind to dowse her hands as she bucked up under the thrashing Kim and grabbed the girl's own exposed breasts. It was hard to ignore how hard the nipples between her fingers were, but Shego had bigger game in mind. Her right hand came around and literally tore Kim's shorts off of her from behind.

And of course the little bitch was going commando! Suddenly Shego was very aware that she was wrestling with a completely nude Kim Possible, whose flaming pubic mound was rubbing up and down across Shego's exposed stomach! Oh dear God, she'd never experienced anything like this before! All her senses were screaming as she became aware that it was one of her own hands that was helping Kim pull down what remained of her shorts. Damn traitor, couldn't trust anyone these days… but…

"Third!" Shego screamed in triumph as that same hand redeemed itself by managing to score a brief but definite stroke across the redhead's fiery crotch… but even as she did so, she felt the weight that had been pressing down on her body lighten as Kim rolled off and leaped to her feet… one of which came back down again with surprising weight to land in the middle of Shego's chest. The impact was so heavy that even with her superior strength, the frustrated former villain felt her back attempt to break through the floor.

"So, how's THAT for foreplay?" The naked redheaded goddess gloated as she stood in Tarzan-like triumph over Shego, looking down with glowing green eyes. "Now tell me who's your Princess?"

Shego's eyes looked up in adoration. Oh, she could fight for hours more, and so could Kim, and no doubt they'd have plenty of time to do it in the future. Hours and hours of… God, what a future they could have! But for now… right now…

"You're my Princess," she told Kim softly… desperately… her eyes… and other parts of her anatomy… welling up with desire.

And now Kim was kneeling back down, closer… ever closer… her red hair sprayed out like a halo as her angelic lips approached Shego's face.

"And what do you want your Princess to do?" Kim asked huskily, her eyes afire with a flame that she knew could only be slaked in the emerald depths of a hidden green pool.

"I'll do anything you ask…" The Angel whispered softly, her sweet voice now only inches from Shego's face, the smell of her breath more intoxicating than anything Shego had ever imagined. "Whatever you want…"

"What… I want…?"

"Yessss…" Kim's hands were tracing down Shego's body like feathered wings… "What…" Kim's lips brushed across the top of Shego's forehead, "Ever…" moving downward on an inexorable course… "You want…"

"I want…" Shego trembled, not believing she could feel this way… that KIM could make her feel this way… "I want you to fuck me."

Kim's lips creased into as smile as they found Shego's own. "Your wish is my command…" she murmured, her mouth taking the green woman's gently as…

As the door to the apartment blew apart in a blazing fury of fragmented wood, concrete and steel and a dozen Global Justice agents in full assault gear burst into the room! Weapons were everywhere as laser spotting beams illuminated the smoke and rubble caused by the incendiary charges that had preceded the door's demise as a VERY familiar voice yelled out in no uncertain terms!

"GLOBAL JUSTICE," Cried Will Du! "EVERYBODY FREEZE!"

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"Oh." Will Du said a moment later, as the situation became more apparent. "Well THIS is awkward."

####

On the other side of the planet, the girl who was now Kim Possible concentrated on her task. To be honest, she couldn't really remember feeling "that way" about Junior, but he assured her that she did and that this was how she normally showed her affection. To be sure, the way he felt sliding in and out of her mouth didn't seem unfamiliar either, and she did owe him so much…

And she was so unsure of so many things these days…

But the one thing that she was absolutely positive about, that made her blood boil, was the evil of that Rockwaller cunt! The sick bitch who'd somehow convinced her own partner, who she had TRUSTED with her life… to conspire against her, drugging her and altering her appearance while they stole Kim's own identity! It seemed insane, but it had been jealousy and greed, pure and simple, that had motivated them to eliminate the girl who always stole the spotlight simply by being who she was… despite the fact that she would gladly have shared it if they had only asked. The part that sickened Kim the most was that she had still cared for Ron and his betrayal had done more than simply torn her heart apart, it had left her unable to trust any of their mutual friends… even Global Justice seemed to be in on the deception, although for what reason no one was quite sure, though Junior suspected that it was to rid themselves of the constant humiliation of having their job done for them by someone they considered an interfering outside.

Junior was the exception of course. The one she could trust.

What Kim did know was that it was only thanks to the loyalty of Junior, the least known member of the team, the one who'd never sought any publicity and had preferred to remained cloaked in anonymity as he ran Kim's website and secretly outfitted her for all her missions, that she had escaped their monstrous plot with only her face altered. And now, Junior's brilliant plan for bringing worldwide attention to the fact that the current Kim Possible was a fake was her one and only hope of recovering who she had been. Something that could only be done by proving that SHE was the real Kim. Once she did the things that only she could do, she could arrange a public meeting where GJ would be forced to expose the fake Possible and Kim could return safely to her life and family.

And she owed it all to Junior. She took a moment to look upwards at his handsome face as he worked through some complex plot in his head. Always thinking, Junior was. 'Kim' was glad for that, because right now her brain was still really fuzzy. Junior said it would be like that for a while, but that eventually everything would start to make sense again.

And then the fake Kim Possible would pay. Oh yes.

The thought pleased her and she redoubled her efforts, head bobbing up and down as her anger transformed to the action of pleasing the only person she could trust.

####

Senor Senior Junior looked down at his lap, at the beautiful young woman who was currently massaging his manhood with her deft little tongue, caressing its length with her soft, full lips. Priceless! Why had he not thought of using mind control months ago? When the little whore had been Bonnie Rockwaller, it had been almost impossible to get an erection in front of her, but now that she thought she was Kim Possible… and more importantly… a Kim Possible who owed everything to Junior, it was an entirely different story. He'd had the bitch in almost every way it was "Possible" since she'd woken up without her memory, and precise applications of the attitudinator had completely conditioned her to believe that the outrageous story he'd told her was true. The fact that the "villain" of the piece was actually her real identity was the crowning touch!

He paused for a moment while the pleasure of that thought threatened to become a more physical expression, and he motioned for the girl to slow down. She obliged quite obediently… not that she really had a choice. If Junior had told her to slit her own throat, she'd have happily done so with the potent drug cocktail that was running through her veins. She couldn't even feel the pain from her recently fractured skull… the bone had been healed but the bruising under that now genuinely red hair was still quite tender. That was why he was careful only to grab her by the ears, by the jaw. And it would still be a few days before he could safely slap her around. But as she was, she would serve her purpose quite well enough. Oh yes…

Junior's lips pulled back in a gloating grin. This was actually turning into quite an enjoyable exercise, especially considering how hard he'd originally fought his father on the whole idea.

"The key to Kim Possible is her friends," The senile old fart had declared. "You must therefore seduce one of them so that you may turn her against her. Against someone she trusts, Kim Possible will be helpless!"

What a great "plan!" Too bad the research they'd done hadn't indicated the level of absolute hatred the Rockwaller woman held for Possible. Given access to the Senior funds, the harlot had wasted no time trying to one-up the red-headed heroine, only to repeatedly crash and burn. Of course, she'd never suspected that the reason for those failures had been entirely due to Junior's own manipulations. From intentionally moving her photos to less successful magazines to actually drugging her prior to an important interview, she'd been putty in his hands, sinking further and further into despondency as he prepared for the REAL plot. She'd never even suspected that both the company that published her book and the on that had finally licensed the film rights were both fronts actually owned by one Senor Senior Jr. The fact that she'd been such a slut made it all the easier… to be honest, Junior wasn't sure he could have ever fucked the girl enough to ready her for her ultimate fate, but she seemed to be willing to screw anything on the island with a penis… anything except his gnarled, arthritic old troll of a father that is! And that was the most delicious part of all. Because, for all his claims to villainy, the elder Senor Senior, with his ridiculous code of proper behavior, was perhaps the only person in Junior's small circle of acquaintances who might have been willing to help her.

The accident at the pool had been almost perfect in its timing. His father had been away on business, so Junior had been in complete control of the situation. And, truth be told, he had almost succumbed to his basest desires and let the girl drown on the bottom of the pool. A just fate for someone who had betrayed her supposed "boyfriend" so viciously. But no, he'd allowed her to be resuscitated, and the old doctor had proven to be as talented in using the illegal medical gear purchased from Jack Hench as Junior had expected him to be. The odds of the girl dying from the experimental bone mending machine had been about 1 in 5, but she seemed to be suffering no ill results from having the plates in her skull fused magnetically. And the aftereffects of the drowning itself… asphyxiation-induced retrograde amnesia… something that could have been temporary, but with the right drugs, the right electronic "coaching"… it couldn't have worked out any better if Junior had scripted it.

Which reminded him, he needed to get the writer to redraft the changes he'd made to the film's plot to accommodate the new "reality."

It had been the way the girl moved that originally attracted him to her. Her athletic gate, the way she spread her legs… so very much like Possible. In retrospect, one of the other cheerleaders might have been a better choice, but Bonnie had been so easy to lead about that he'd made do with what he had and found his pleasures elsewhere while he bided his time. Europe was always full of pretty young girls on holiday, looking for a little fun, a little excitement and perhaps a fling with a dashing and attractive young millionaire.

There were about twenty such girls currently rotting at the bottom of the lagoon on the far side of the island… Junior had quite honestly lost count. No one had ever seen them depart for the private island from the mainland, and those who had seen them here either assumed they had left of their own free will, or knew well enough to not mention that they had ever been here. Because they knew that Junior would know. He had ways of finding out.

And that, Junior mused, was where he and his father had to agree to disagree. None of this "James Bond" villain, let me explain my plot nonsense for Junior. No, Junior knew the truth… that REAL evil was silent, it waited in ambush and never let anyone know what it was about to do, or what it had done. Real evil was Jack the Ripper, the shopkeepers and housewives who turned their heads away as their neighbors were carted away in train cars to be gassed and immolated… real evil never went away, because real evil never came out into the light where it could be seen.

Junior paused as the girl's… he liked to think of her as faux-Kim, because it sounded like the English "fuck him"… actions and his thoughts finally brought his passion to the surface, and he waited until she had swallowed the evidence before he gave her the go-ahead to clean herself.

Yes, as he watched the naked redhead walk away, ogling the athletic muscles of her rippling back, the minute jiggle of that incredible ass… it was ALMOST enough to fool someone who had actually known the real thing. For the great majority, it would be more than close enough, but Junior was a perfectionist. Still, all in all, he had to admit that things were coming together nicely. Advertising that the 'film" would be done as an adult program had screened out all of the most responsible members of the production community, and among those needing the work badly enough to work on something with such unusual 'working conditions" and he had easily been able to find a select handful who would keep their mouths shut for as long as Junior's task required… at which point he would have their mouths shut permanently.

And the best part was that he really could not lose. If everything came together perfectly, he would finally have Possible herself as his plaything… and if not, then his little faux-Kim would get the spotlight she had always desired… although definitely not in the way she had hoped for. Either way, via his contacts on the Henchco forums, Junior knew he already had a huge and waiting, ready made market for his… what was that odd American term? Oh yes, "snuff film." And as the hand that would hold the knife, no matter which bitch died in the end, **The Death of Kim Possible **was the vehicle that was finally going to make Junior a star.


	14. Chapter 14

_Back again. Hopefully there aren't many issues with the formatting of this one. The doc bounced around a lot, Blackberry, Netbook with Open Office, Laptop with Word… and I'm a speedreader, so sometimes I don't notice missing words, etc., when I do my own proofing. Anyway, after the last couple of teases, I thought it was time to give the girls a break so…. Have fun. Thanks again for all the kind words, reviews, etc. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Will Du, Doctor Draken, Warmonga,Doctor Betty Director, Jack Hench, The Senor Seniors. and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Anna and Cyn are unique to this story but if you want to use 'em, they seem to be agreeable with that. If you want to use Jose Mendoza the GJ agent, he's also available, but says he only does straight porn. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 14

#####

"Are you sure this place is going to be okay?" Kim asked, her arms filled to capacity with rolls of blankets, towels and spare clothing. The elevator ride down from the surface had been much longer than she expected, and this tiny room at the end of the shaft was just barely large enough to keep her from feeling a touch of claustrophobia.

Shego shrugged as she keyed the sixteenth of twenty seven access codes into the alpha-numeric keypad on the heavily reinforced door. "Could it be any worse than your place is right now? It should be fine, Princess. Staying here was my original plan anyway."

Kim nodded in acceptance. "Which is why you had the sleeping bag and all this other stuff in your trunk, I got it. I just didn't know Drakken had a lair this close to Middleton."

"No one knew… knows…," Shego corrected herself. "I checked the security grid and no one's been in here since the last time I did a security check. This was our Bolthole… the lair of last resort. After Dr. D's first encounter with Warmonga went sour, he figured he'd need a place no one could ever find and could stand up to what he thought the specs of Lowardian weapons were. I did a lot of the digging myself using a 'borrowed' GJ tunnel digger, then we brought in a Henchco team to do the basic engineering for us, then a third team of general contractors, all of whom were blindfolded and brought in from a third dummy drop off point. The final touch was that the payment was actually transferred from the Seniors account, not ours… I had SSS make the payments for training Junior directly to Henchco, and the Doc wrote me a check to cover it… which bounced, now that I think of it… but the end result is that Hench probably still thinks the Seniors own this place and they don't even know it exists." Shego paused and rolled up her shirt to expose one green nipple, flashing it in front of a small round scanner device, which made a positive sounding beep. "Um… okay… I need to see your breasts now Kim."

"What? What the hell kind of security system is this?"

Shego's smile was wry, bordering on smirk-dom. "You ever hear of anyone keeping a database of nipple patterns?"

"Uh… no."

"Then it's a pretty damn secure one," Shego concluded, now in full smirk. "It's got my lefty and righty, the Doc's as well as three of our senior henches, though none of those guys were ever actually here in person."

"Okay, there," Kim sighed, shyly lifting her shirt to expose herself to the former villain. "Hey wait, how could my nipples be in that database?"

"They're not," Shego grinned. "I just wanted to see them again."

"Oh God! You…!"

"Sorry sweetheart, tit for tat, you know?"

"Gah! If I wasn't flattered I'd pound you for that pun."

"Time for pounding later, Pun-kin," the former villain replied with absolutely no sign of repentance, as the massive door finally slid aside and they stepped into the next room. "So anyway, Doc was SUPPOSED to turn over all his lair coordinates to GJ as part of his amnesty deal, but I figured the sneaky bastard would have left this one out."

Despite having been in hundreds of lairs, this one still managed to take Kim's breath away. The roof was a good hundred feet above their heads, spanning a room that was easily twice that in every other dimension. The walls were lined with… currently inactive… machinery and boxes of emergency rations, and what was obviously intended to be a command center with a dozen workstations, a Star Trek-style Captain's chair, and even a long meeting table with ten chairs on either side and larger ones at each end. Illumination was provided by strings of worklights that ran across the ceiling, suspended almost invisible from thin black cables, and a single large halogen scoop that cast a soft ball of illumination into a circle at the exact center of the floor.

"Wow! It's huge!"

"Don't let the main room fool you," Shego countered, as she walked directly towards the lit up part of the floor. "It's good sized because we never subdivided it, and what were supposed to be the living quarters are really cramped and utilitarian. It'd be a lot smaller with the labs and whatever crap Drakken was working on taking up the middle, BUT… it is self sufficient as far as water and power goes, the showers and toilets work, and I had the basics of a good gym brought in for basic hench training on the assumption that we might have to go to ground for months."

Kim shivered. "You, Drakken and a hundred sweaty guys? Sounds like fun."

"Yeah, well…" Shego stopped and dropped the bundle she was carrying in the middle of the circled part of the floor. "Fun is where you find it."

"True…" Kim smiled back, rolling out the old tarp that had encased her own bundle, then watched as Shego placed her unzipped sleeping bag on top of that, to which Kim fianally added the spare blankets and pillows she'd trucked in. "There. All the comforts of home."

"All the important ones." Shego nodded, not looking at the bedding as she closed the distance between them. She had eyes for only one thing now.

"Yeah…" Kim responded, her eyes flashing in agreement as her own arms found their place around Shego's neck. "Now where were we…?"

"I think… here…"

And then conversation ceased as their lips met tentatively, then came together with greater force. Not that they were quiet… the animal sounds that exploded from Kim surprised her, but they were echoed by pleased purrs from her chosen partner. Now the battle they had fought so often with their bodies moved to their mouths as their tongues met and explored each other, even as their hands began to remove each others' clothing. Having ascertained that they were indeed each other's physical equal, there was no need to fight for dominance… not this time anyway. Not when there was so much else still to discover. How could every encounter be so different, Kim marveled, and yet all so wonderful?

She wasn't sure whose knees failed first, but suddenly they were kneeling on the sleeping bag, and now that there was nothing separating them, it was as if their bodies became two halves of a single whole… a whole that was completely preoccupied with itself. Touching… stroking… tasting… they fell again to their sides, moving seamlessly together, first one on top and then the other, as arms, breasts and anything else that came into range of their combined sensory apparatus became a new miracle to behold and sample. At one point Kim was briefly aware that she was sucking on Shego's left big toe, while the green woman was slowly gnawing a lover's mark into the soft curve behind Kim's knee. And then Kim was contemplating putting her mouth in a place she'd never contemplated putting it before, but she did and while the taste itself was surprising, the delightful tremors it sent through her lovers body rippled back and through her own in a shared ecstasy that defied all description.

And that first set of shared orgasms was just the first of many. Their stamina was outmatched only by their… love, yes Kim was finally ready to use that word… and as they continued to plunge in their mad fall to total satiation, they stopped only once, as their eyes exchanged emotions so deep that Kim thought she could gladly drown among them.

"It'll hurt?"

"Yes, it will," Shego replied. "But it's okay. I want you to…"

"I've never been afraid of pain, Shego. And neither have you."

"Together then…"

And it did hurt, but only for a moment, and then they were completely and inextricably one as even those last barriers were swept aside.

This was all so impossible Kim, thought. It's been less than two days…

And yet…

This was how it was fated to be. How could it have been anymore perfect?

And with her heart fuller than it had ever been, then Kim had ever imagined it could be, she continued onward, without fear…

As she and Shego made love on the floor in the middle of Drakken's lair.

######

Afterwards, snuggled together with just a single sheet to cover their naked, still sweating bodies, Kim looked down at the green woman who had cuddled herself into the folds of Kim's curves, a look on her face quite unlike any Kim had ever imagined. This was a Shego that dated back years, to a time when she didn't know constant fear, when she felt… protected.

Odd, Kim thought. That that little smile can mean so much.

But it did. It meant everything.

'_I love her,'_ she thought in… it wasn't quite shock… but it was definitely a form of awe. _'I think I always have…' _

"_And I know I always will…"_

It was earthshaking. It was world rocking. It was… simply how it was.

And it was how Kim intended for it to always be.

As she pondered that, for how to make it possible, she stared up into the huge dark recesses of the ceiling high overhead, past the central sun of the main lamp and the surrounding stars of the work lights, running though every possibility she could imagine…

And then an idea began to form.

"Shego…?"

"Mmm?"

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I don't know Brain. Now that I've discovered multiple orgasms, I think the whole conquering the world thing is a real waste of time."

Kim grinned and hugged her new favorite cuddle-buddy tightly.

"In that case, I think this is an idea you're _really_ going to like."

#####

Agent First Class Will Du stood rigidly at attention and attempted to stare at a spot somewhere behind the woman on the other side of the desk… because staring ANYWHERE except at that single omnipotent eye was preferable to what he knew would happen if he did. With her poor depth perception he might just be able to get away with it, was he…?

Oh crap, he'd looked into her eye and she had him. Now he was a bird, trapped in the gaze of a cobra: mesmerized… and doomed.

"So…" The cyclopean woman who ran Global Justice and was now the third scariest woman Will Du had ever met… interrupting both Kim Possible and Shego in a moment of personal indiscretion had quickly made him realize that there WERE worse fates than what Doctor Director might dish out… spoke with almost exaggerated elocution. "Your full assault group broke into the safe house that you, yourself, had verified the security of, against the specific recommendations of Agent Mendoza, who was the spotter you had personally chosen, rendering said safe house essentially uninhabitable. And as a result of these actions, you found what?"

Still, Will thought, the third scariest woman in the world was still pretty damn scary. And because he was in his standard suit, not the combat wear, he didn't have the benefit of the flak-uniform's adult diaper.

"Um... we found the subject and her houseguest in a state of flagrant delecto."

"In English please." The single eyebrow above the moving eye raised, the one above the eyepatch remaining curiously fixed in place. Did she practice that gesture? 'Cause it was DAMNED intimidating. "And could you please be a bit more precise with your phraseology."

'_My kingdom for a Depends,'_ Will thought desperately. "Uh... they were naked and appeared to be about to engage in sexual... uh... sexu... relations, Ma'am."

The eye was unmoving and Will realized he was supposed to continue.

"Specifically, Subject Possible was on top of Subject Shego and her left hand was about to..."

"Yes, I believe that will do, Du," The Director relented, and Will realized that he actually felt like Du doo. And this was no reprieve… the Director was just moving on to an attack on a different front. "I've got a fairly comprehensive summary of those details from the rest of your team, including three conclusive statements that Miss Possible's hair color is indeed natural."

"So, not only did you breach your own security perimeter," She continued, "But using the hidden door removal charges that have been an eyes-only secret that we've maintained for five years, you simultaneously managed to blow that secret AND to cast GJ in just about the worst possible light in the eyes of our number one target for recruitment of the past decade."

And even in his fear, Will had to admire the fact that she'd been able to slide that last bit in. If there was anything that humbled him, it was the fact that EVERYONE in GJ seemed to think that Possible, not Du, was somehow the vision of the future. And if he kept screwing up like this, that would include him.

He really had hit rock bottom. Oh hell, he'd passed that a while ago and was now digging out the special Will Du sub-sub-sub-basement.

"Now then, with all that in mind, Mister Du," Doctor Director's voice was eerily calm and rational. "Can you think of a single reason why I SHOULDN'T have you transferred to our GJ branch in Antarctica?

Was it a trick question? "Um... because we don't have one, Ma'am?"

"Well, maybe we ought to. I saw MARCH OF THE PENGUINS. Seems like those little guys could use some heavily armed protection." Oh thank God, Will thought, he saw the barest hint of a smile behind that. He might get out of this alive.

With a sigh of exasperation, Betty Director finally motioned for him to take a seat. He took the far one to the left. Furthest from 'the eye.'

"Seriously, Will, what the hell were you thinking?"

"I'm sorry ma'am. But our interior sensors..."

"The sensors that I personally swore to Miss Possible would NOT be active in the Apartment she was HOUSE-sitting for us?"

"Yes, uh... those. Well, they all started going off... wall fractures, floor impacts... and it seemed to me that something MIGHT be happening in there."

"Might is a very weak word to commit a full team on. More importantly, have you ever heard of a device called a PHONE? Call her, beep her? When you want to reach her?"

"Um..." Will looked away. He wasn't about to admit that he'd been rather intimidated by the response he'd received that last time, when Shego had unexpectedly answered the phone.

Except to himself. In a breakthrough moment he finally came to grips with the fact that what was really holding him back wasn't Kim Possible, it was himself. Will Du… hadn't been doing very much to show what he was capable of lately.

"And furthermore," Doctor Director was saying, "Did you really think a team of just a dozen GJ agents, however well armed, would be capable of taking on something that could actually take down the combined capabilities of Kim Possible AND Shego?

"I… I guess I just thought that maybe it was Shego..."

Doctor Director's voice was soft, but there was a shaft of iron running through it. "Who is ALSO supposed to be under our protection per the terms of her amnesty agreement. And you thought she might have been attacking Kim the day AFTER spending the night in her apartment? The day after she went out of her way to call MY attention to the fact that she was there in the first place? A call that was oddly never forwarded to me, and which I learned of through Agent Mendoza's specific notation of it in his incident report?"

"I… I wasn't thinking Ma'am."

"No. You weren't. And if you weren't such a good agent in every other respect, figuring out what to do with you would be a lot easier."

Will looked up in surprise. Doctor… Betty Director was actually giving him a rather maternal smile. "No, you're probably NOT going to Antarctica, Will. But I will come up with something equally nasty just so nobody thinks I'm playing favorites, so be prepared. Fortunately for you, I have to figure out how to handle my next interview and I'm frankly too worried about that one to focus on you at the moment."

"Your next interview, ma'am?" Will blurted before he thought. He was the LAST of the assault team to go through the review process so…

"Yes," Dr. Director frowned and Will was surprised to see the level of worry on her face. NOTHING scared Doctor Director. "It seems that Shego and Ms. Possible have requested a few moments of my time this afternoon, and under the circumstances I can hardly refuse to see them, can I?"

#####

Betty Director stood as the two remarkable young women entered her office. It wasn't just the fact that Global Justice, of which she was the living personification, owed them an apology. It was that it was finally time to deal with them as they deserved to be. With respect.

"Ladies," She said with her best formal smile painted on her face. She didn't normally wear makeup, but given the recent revelations about the women's apparent sexuality… well, it probably wouldn't hurt.

Kimi and Shego's faces didn't give anything away as they nodded acceptance and went to the proffered sofa opposite her desk. Interesting. Most people brought in usually chose the standalone chairs to either side, but they'd picked the seats most directly across from her. Of course, they'd both been in this room before… but never together. Never as a… team? Betty wondered.

No… more than that, she observed, noting the body language, side-to-side eye contact. And then all was made clear by the possessive hand Kim casually draped on Shego's thigh as she leaned forward, while Shego lazed back… not demurely, but definitely more relaxed… contented… than Betty had expected. She'd assumed that Shego would be the primary force to deal with here… the dominant partner… but at the very least the green woman was treating the younger woman as a complete equal. Apparently the motto anything's possible for a Possible wasn't just lip service. Or Kim was capable of some other truly spectacular form of same. Perhaps both. Either way, it was quite daunting to comprehend that two of the most valuable assets on the planet had combined to become one… singular negotiating entity. It would be fascinating if it wasn't also… terrifying.

Because Betty Director knew more about Shego and Kim than they probably knew about themselves… she'd had more than adequate reason to amass massive files on both women, dating back to when they were infants. Of course, the spectacular intelligence SNAFU that had missed any indications of a romantic relationship was proof that GJ's Analysis Branch wasn't perfect. Betty had gone back over a sampling of surveillance tapes in the aftermath of the discovery and seen all the signs, now that she knew what to look for… how the two had always gone straight for each other, no matter what the situation, breaking off only at the last possible moment. It was the weirdest courtship she'd ever seen, but that's obviously what it was. Which was why she was quite positive that whatever was negotiated today would have an extremely lasting effect on the future of Global Justice.

Shego's assets were fairly obvious. Her plasma powers seemed to be almost limitless, her healing abilities amazing and her strength superseded only by that of her brother Hego. But there was a great depth to the woman that most missed. Despite already having super powers, the woman had gone on to master a huge variety of martial arts simply for the challenge, and could pilot almost any vehicle ever built. Her skills as a thief were unsurpassed… there might be a few on her level, but none of the others had to work within the confines of having one of the most recognizable faces… well, skins, to be honest… on the planet. That made the period where she had literally disappeared for over a year even more impressive. To this date, nobody knew where she had been or what she had been doing from the time she quit Team Go to when she suddenly appeared with Drakken.

Doctor Director WAS one of the handful of people who knew what had happened to cause the woman's slide into villainhood… Betty had spent over two years digging up the information herself, then had destroyed the file she'd found when she learned the truth. It had been very hard after that to maintain their pursuit of the then-villain, because Betty knew that she herself would probably have become a lot more… vicious.

But as amazing as Shego was, it was Kim Possible who truly fascinated Doctor Director. The girl seemed to be able to do anything she set her mind to… and the limits of that mind had yet to be tapped. The daughter of one of the nation's top five physicists AND engineers, and one of the best brain surgeons in the world, she was brilliant enough to already have a dozen patents in her name. But as impressive as her intellectual achievements had been, there were other aspects of her mind that only a handful knew of. Because Kim's incredible abilities as a fighter were almost completely attributable to her brain. Yes, she had a phenomenal physique that she kept in unbelievable shape, but her almost intuitive ability to absorb martial arts the way other people learned song lyrics was unmatched. And then, if that wasn't enough, there was the SPEED at which Kim thought. The girl… woman now… didn't have reaction times. She had pre-reaction times. It seemed impossible, and the scientists in Analysis were still arguing about whether her brain was simply capable of analyzing data so fast that she could determine multiple threads of probabilities on the fly, or if she actually had some form of precognitive ability.

Doctor Director had no doubts on the subject. The most powerful pre-cog Global Justice had ever found had confirmed that Kim, indeed, seemed to be a latent PSI. Of course, that information was so ultra-classified that only the person who had determined that fact knew of its existence, as the surest way to ruin a secret would be to share it. How convenient that the pre-cog who had figured it out happened to be one Betty Director.

She still remembered that flash… the furthest into the future she'd ever had… as if it had just happened. Global Justice HQ, at least twenty years from now. How in her dream she'd looked up at the one-eyed woman sitting in the main command seat and been stunned to see, not her own face, but Kim's.

Which was why, no matter what it took, Betty Director was going to do whatever it took to make sure that the futures of Kim Possible and Global Justice were forever intertwined. Because she'd seen other visions, other futures that might be, and only the one where Kim Possible led was a place where Betty would wish those she loved to live.

So, how to approach this new version of Kim… who was suddenly seeming much more grown up than the girl Betty had essentially tricked into protective custody. This woman wouldn't fall for that, especially with Shego's skills and experience to back her up.

'_Let's try humor,'_ Betty decided.

"I don't suppose you came down to take advantage of our latest enlistment bonus program, did you?" She smiled pleasantly.

"Actually," Kim replied with the smooth assurance of a cardshark with three aces up her sleeve. "Here's the thing, Betty: You can't _have_ me, but I can be _had_."

And with that Doctor Director was all ears. Suddenly, she had a feeling she could really come to like this new, slyly grinning Kim Possible.

Oh, yes indeed.


	15. Chapter 15

_Hmm. I always wondered about people asking for reviews, but as of this typing, ATCOTS is currently at 93, and if I break 100, I'll have enough FFN points to get my Junior HazMat suit. Sooo, I'm going to have to pull out the heavy artillery and threaten to break my earlier promise not to bring Bobo the chimp into the story unless I…. What? They don't do the FFN points promotion anymore? Oh. Well that BITES!_

_Never mind._

_Thanks to all those who have sent in reviews, cookies, and, in three cases, the nude pictures, you know who you ladies are (love the tattoo!) Guys… please, no. What kind of fiction am I writing here? Yada Yada Hope you enjoy this next installment! __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, Doctor Betty Director, Wade Load, Dr. Drakken, Evil Ron Stoppable, the Doctors Possible, The Seniors Senor, the Tweebs Squared and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Anna and Cyn are unique to this story and apparently Cyn's agreeable to just about anything. Jose Mendoza the GJ agent may be available, but his hours at the convenience store are kind of a bitch to work around. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 15

#####

Betty stared at the wall of her office with a bemused expression on her face. Oh, she'd been flimflammed… she knew she had… and she was still wondering how she could have allowed herself to be so ruthlessly taken advantage of. Despite her own pre-cog skills, Betty had found herself channeled exactly the way the two younger women wanted her to go, and even calling the hour long talk 'negotiations' was being overly generous and liberal with the definition of the term. That had NEVER happened to her before, but given that she'd also come away from the table with MORE than she'd started with, she could hardly complain. The whole outcome would have seemed impossible… except for the fact that it was Kim Possible.

On the other hand, she was beyond pleased with what she'd got in return. Hell, if they'd wanted to cement the deal with a three-way on top of Betty's desk, she'd have gladly done it right then and there. The deal was _that_ good.

All of which probably meant that she should count her rings and double check her wallet, she reflected, recalling the old saying that the best thief was one who made you think you had gotten the better of her. In fact, a quick run to Medical to make sure she still had two kidneys might be in order. Kim Possible was obviously passing up what could have been a very profitable career as either a con-artist or a used-car salesperson, and Shego's influence on her would have to be watched very carefully as well… the green woman had been doing nice job of 'playing dumb' on her own part until she'd closed the second jaw of the trap.

And yet… Betty couldn't restrain the smug smile that kept creeping on her face. She HAD her… no, she had BOTH of them! And in many ways, what Kim and Shego had proposed was much, much better than Kim simply signing on to GJ as an agent. Shego's status as an ex-felon had made her unacceptable to GJ without a lengthy period of office-bound bureaucratic paper-shuffling and 'supervision' that would have squandered her unique abilities needlessly. Instead, the proposition that Kim and Shego would reformulate the old Team Possible model into a separate organization sponsored by, but completely separate from, GJ put both of them in the field immediately as a team… albeit, completely under their own management and operating at their own discretion. But, since that was, in effect, perfect on the job training for exactly where Betty intended for Kim to go in the long term, it wasn't exactly something that could be tallied in the negative column. Better yet, the age/seniority issues that had already started to rear their heads among the top echelon of agents like Du could be completely sidestepped, while at the same time GJ gained a semi-autonomous branch that could work as an ombudsman when necessary. And then, as a final sweetener, Possible had promised that the technical advances coming out of the new unit would also be made available across the agency lines… Betty had raised her eyebrow a good bit at the thought of completely bullet-proof current fashions, but apparently Kim already had a deal in the works, and as a "family-run" operation, she could bring in the sizeable technical skills of her brothers without the onerous age restrictions that GJ had to deal with.

Betty stopped for a second as she realized she was drooling in almost Pavlovian fashion.

It was all so convenient. So perfect.

And all she'd had to give up was…

#####

"…the entire Lair," Shego gloated gleefully, as they sped back towards what would now be their home base. "You really pulled it off!"

"WE pulled it," Kim corrected, looking across the narrow expanse of the rented sports car at the woman she'd just committed to legally bind herself to for the next five years. "And Betty didn't even know it existed until we told her, so it wasn't as if she was surrendering something that was already on a GJ asset list. THAT would have been tricky. Besides, according to the lawyers, it was technically already yours to begin with. If Drakken's check was bad, and the money came from an account you set up with money you were paid for a legal service…"

"I know, I know, but I'm just not used to the law working in my favor… and you have to admit, the idea that teaching Junior how to be a thief is legitimate while the act of thieving isn't, is pretty twisty."

"Maybe," Kim acknowledged, "But on the other hand, it was probably some of the hardest money you've ever earned."

Shego's grimace gave truth to that surmise. "You don't know the half of it… but actually, Junior was a lot savvier than he let on. Kind of like an evil Ron."

"Brrr. And you've MET evil Ron. Not something I ever want to face again."

"You and me both. But if you ever go up against him… Junior… again, just keep in mind that he's got a few nasty tricks up his sleeve."

Kim knocked on the simulated wood centerpiece of the dashboard, noting that the speedometer had now crept over 110mph, and deciding not to comment on it. "Well, hopefully this will keep us and the villains separated for a while."

A flicker of worry crossed Shego's face. "Um… are you really sure about this, Princess? You're kinda committing a big portion of your life…"

"To what I was going to end up doing anyway," Kim sighed. It probably seemed to Shego that Kim was thinking entirely with her crotch right now, but how to explain these weird flashes of insight she would occasionally have... a feeling of just _knowing… _without sounding like a flake? That did bring up a worrying question of her own. "YOU'RE not having second thoughts, are you?"

Shego's warm smile was more than reassuring. "After spending how many years playing second fiddle to Drakken? No, let's be honest Princess. As kick ass and wonderful as I am, I'm comfortable not being in the driver's seat… except when I'm driving, of course. I think I can live with nominally being under Betty's thumb as long as there's someone I trust between me and her. And I trust you intimately pumpkin." Kim was abruptly made aware that at some point Shego's hand had left the gearshift… a fact made rather obvious given the delicate green finger that was suggestively tracing the inside arc of Kim's legs. "Plus the fringe benefits are a lot nicer this time around. I'll deal."

"I bet you will. But we're partners... and if you don't stop that, PARTNER…"

"Mmmm?"

"I'm going to have to insist we pull over."

"Yes boss. Whatever you say boss. But it's going to take us forever to get home this way."

####

So THAT's what having sex in the back seat of a car was like, Kim mused pleasantly. Hard to believe she'd gotten through high school without learning that, but… definitely worth the wait. For someone who'd been a virgin 24 hours ago, she suspected she was becoming a sex-addict. Fortunately, she'd discovered they both liked the warm, post-coital moments every bit as much, so they were getting SOME sleep.

She pressed her lips to the soft green flesh of the back pressed against her and let her mind drift back to the previous… hmm… did it count as night when it was actually at 5 in the morning? Well, drift back to _earlier_, anyway…

"So, it would be a lot like what I've done for Global Justice," She'd been thinking out loud, using the other woman's wonderful mind as a sounding board, "But stepping away from the bounty hunting for a while, focusing on the rescues… humanitarian work…"

Despite the sleepy look in her eyes, Shego's wits were still at full capacity. "Kinda like that old show with the puppets? The special teams and equipment?"

"Huh?" Kim puzzled, then found the reference in her brain. _'I think my green ex-superhero girlfriend is a closet geek!'_ "Oh yeah. Hey, what about Global Rescue for a name?"

"Not Anything's Possible?" Shego teased. "Possible Solutions? We'll Possibly Save You?"

"Contrary to popular belief, I'm not in love with the sound of my own name. I CAN go five minutes without saying it." Kim glared at Shego's disbelieving smirk. "I CAN! And besides giving us a way to get a clean start, one of the major reasons for going this route is to bring in other people to share the load. That means a nice, generic name so we can eventually retire and leave the business to…"

"The kids?" Shego questioned oh-so-casually, but Kim saw the sparkle in those breathtaking green eyes.

"I was going to say Wade and the Tweebs, but that's presumptuous, isn't it? But… to someone." Kim thought on the idea Shego had just broached. It felt… "Kids? You know, with us, that might even be possible…"

"You just said it again Pumpkin."

"Gah! Well make me shut up then."

Which is why they'd had, at best, three hours of sleep when they'd gone in to see Betty. Apparently that had been enough.

But the next, and most difficult part, was still ahead… and Kim wasn't about to put Shego through THAT.

#####

"This is amazing!" Anna gasped, looking around the huge giant room. "You could do ANYTHING in here!"

"That's what we thought," Shego agreed, watching the photographer and her assistant scout out the new location like a pair of cats. "AC and DC current, plenty of ventilation… about the only catch is the size of the elevator down."

"Uh… about that security system," Anna began.

"Oh, I suppose we can go to just the alpha-numerics for the duration," Shego grinned.

"You could make me the key-person," Cyn inserted pointedly. "Maybe Anna will finally notice the fine quality model she's been ignoring all these years."

"You want to model?" Anna blinked.

"I might have promised Lt. Ellis a revealing photo," Cyn admitted. "And Glamouous Shots in the mall is SO unaccommodating."

"aaaaa…."

"In any case, everything we'd need is designed to fit through regular doors," Cyn continued. "And it looks like those braces up there would be strong enough to hold up even the big sunlamps."

"Structurally stable to 36 tons," Shego acknowledged. "Kim and I figured we could just paint the whole thing black for now and you'd have what you need."

"Sounds perfect," Anna agreed, finally refocusing her brain on the job at hand, only to immediately pause. "But on that subject, exactly where IS Kim?"

######

Kim put on her brightest smile as she waited for the door to the house where she'd lived almost her entire life to open. It felt so weird, waiting on the other side for someone to let her in… but she'd surrendered her keys and asked her family to change the locks during the height of her anti-paparazzi paranoia… and was now so glad that she had, knowing who else might be out there, looking for her…

The telltale click on the inside of the door gave her just enough time to put on her game face.

"Hey Mom!" She beamed, aiming for just the right touch of casual.

"Kimmie?" Dr. Anne Possible's face was instantly full of alarm, eyes looking to both sides. "Is something wrong?"

_Okay, sooooo need acting lessons._ "Uh… no." Kim back peddled. "I mean, not really. Why would you think something was wrong?"

Anne's expression was that of a parent who knew all too well their child was keeping something from them, but hadn't quite made up their mind about what to do about it yet. "Well, to be honest dear, because you're here and I didn't even have to badger you into coming."

Guilt hit Kim like a two-hundred pound mackerel in the face. She wasn't even sure when the last time she'd been home was… when home had been here… when…

_Suck it up Possible! You just faced down Betty Fucking Director! Is your mom scarier than that?_

_Okay, yeah, yes she is._

"I…" She kept from resorting to the puppy pout, but the trembling of the lower lip was entirely autonomous. "You're right mom. I've been kind of a lousy daughter lately, haven't I?"

Anne's face softened immediately. "No, you're the most wonderful daughter we could have asked for. But we have been worried about you." The Doctor let that message soak in for just a beat. "So why ARE you here?"

This was SO not going how she wanted it to go. "Um… can I come in?"

Now Anne was starting to look worried again. "What? What kind of question is that?"

"I don…"

Kim's words were cut off as her Mom reached around her in an all-encompassing hug, pulling her towards the threshold. "Get your ass into the kitchen, dear. This is still your house. It'll always be your house."

'_No Mom, you just don't know that yet.' _Kim thought, but gratefully stepped inside. She didn't know why she expected things to have changed, but they hadn't. It was like she had just left yesterday she reflected as she was dragged through the front room and dining area to the kitchenette…

"Now then," the older woman commanded seconds later as she placed a fresh glass of lemonade on the table next to her daughter. "I assume you must have something important enough that you felt you had to come in person rather than sending a Monique-gram."

"Aa.." Kim started to protest, except her mom had, as usual, hit the nail squarely on the head. "Yeah," She gave in with a droop of her shoulders "You're right. I do have something to talk to you about. You and dad."

Dr. Possible's eyes were back to def-con orange status. "Uh oh. Not something you want to talk about just with me first?"

"No…" Kim admitted. "No, I think it would be easier to just do it once."

Kim's mom sighed deeply and nodded. "Alright dear, he's out on the patio right now rebuilding the grill."

"Rebuilding the…?" Kim started. The grill, her dad's pride and joy, was built to the same specs as a White Sands Missile testing range blast bunker.

"Oh, that's right, you missed that," Anne grinned. "Your brothers… got a little ambitious with their upgrades. Then the liquid oxygen system wouldn't cut off and most of the aluminum parts were vaporized." She leaned in for a highly conspiratorial whisper. "So whatever you do, don't stare at your father's eyebrow."

"Which one?"

Anne merely gave her a baleful look as she shouted "James! Kimmie's home!"

"Kimmie-cub?" The distant voice was followed by the sound of tools and other hard objects dropping and then the back door opening. Seconds later, Dr. James Possible exploded into the room like one of the missiles he spent his life designing, sweeping his daughter off her feet in an octopus-like embrace.

"Hey! Howsmylittle girl? Oof! Not so little anymore!"

"Dad!" Kim started to laugh, then realized that her father indeed only had one eyebrow. The left one. "Your…" A look from her mom cut her off. "…re looking great!"

"Thanks Kimmie," Her dad grinned, finally letting her toes touch the ground as he released her. "You know, it's a shame… you just missed your brothers."

"Actually," Kim confessed. "I kind of engineered that. They're going to a meeting with Wade and Monique."

And with that, the situation in the Possible household moved up to Def-Con Redhead. Anne and James exchanged the raises of three eyebrows between them.

"Uuh hummm. Do you know what this is about dear?" James asked in a not so subtle side-whisper.

"Still in the dark too, I'm afraid." His wife replied, also pretending that Kim was unable to hear them.

"Aaah… welll…" Kim began slowly…

"Bad sign?" Asked Dr. Possible of Dr. Possible, to which Dr. Possible replied "Maybe."

"You are SO not making this any easier!" Kim groaned.

That, however, at least got both parental units looking at her rather than exchanging quips with each other, which was probably the best situation she was likely to encounter.

"Okay, look…" Kim began, trying to remember the speech she'd prepared. "You know how you've always told me that when I finally figured out what I wanted to do, I'd just know it?

"Sure" "Of course dear." "Is this about college?" Came the combined response.

"Um, no.," Kim continued gamely. "I've actually kind of come to the conclusion that a traditional curriculum would be a bad idea right now, so I've got Harvard, Yale and MIT all working up prospective programs I can do at my own pace, over the internet. It's not that I wouldn't LIKE to go through a traditional program… it just… wouldn't be safe for the other students."

And exchange of looks between the Doctors, followed by two owl-like examinations of their daughter.

"There… there are people who really don't like me out there," Kim admitted, hoping she wouldn't have to explain that in any further detail. "And the way things are going, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

"Um…Kimmiecub? Are you trying to tell us that you've joined the CIA?" James ventured a guess.

"Uh... no," Kim sighed, given that was uncomfortably close to the truth. "I'm telling you that… well, first of all, I'm going to be moving. Actually, I already have moved… the place I was staying kind of got shot up."

That took things to a whole new, more serious level. To her surprise, however, neither parent seemed particularly stunned about the 'shot-up' part."

"You're movi… moved?" Anne's focus was like one of the laser scalpels she wielded at work, cutting to the core of the issue. "Out of Middleton?"

"No...no Mom. I'll still be here but..." _Oh just go for it…_ "But I'm kindamovinginwithsomeone."

More non-verbal communication between the doctors. It was actually kind of eerie, Kim thought. They did the exact same kind of word-less transfer that Jim and Tim did. Why had she never noticed that before?

"Uh huh," James spoke for the parental Borg-collective. "And from the way you're approaching this, would I be correct in assuming that this isn't just a roommate you're talking about?"

'_Am I always going to feel like I'm six around them?'_ Kim wondered.

"Yeah, that's right dad. It's a little more... no, a lot more of a commitment." _Grit teeth, don't hyperventilate. _"Kind of the big one, actually."

Like a neutron bomb, that killed all signs of life in the building… for a few seconds anyway, although it felt like much longer to Kim's rapidly beating heart.

At long last, Mrs. Dr. Possible decided to field the next query. It was precise, to the point and impossible to answer easily. "I see. And… have we MET this boy, Kimmie?"

"Uh... yess…. no... um..." This had seemed like it would be much easier than this on the way over. Had she been smoking crack?

"Now you're just being confusing dear," Her mother was saying. "Which is it?"

"You've met them... but…" _Here it comes. Here comes the G-Bomb._ "It's a her mom. I'm gay."

There was a precisely 6.5 second delay of silence, then a pair of matched "oh." "ohhhhs." Kim wasn't sure which parent said which, not that it really mattered.

Another ten seconds or so of non-sound ticked by.

"Well." Mr. Dr. Possible attempted to smile. "This is... sudden."

It wasn't a "we're so happy for you," but it wasn't a bad start…

"Yeah..." Kim admitted. "It kinda hit me that way too."

Her mother took the next lob.

"Sweetheart, are you sure?"

And for THAT, Kim had an answer.

"I am Mom. I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

"Well okay then," Mr. Doctor Possible nodded. "You know we've always trusted you… even when some of your decisions seemed a little bit unsound and irrational."

"James!" Anne hissed, swatting her husband's arm.

"But I'm curious as to why you haven't mentioned a name," her father continued unabated. "It's not... Monique is it? Those outfits she was making…"

"No!" Kim gasped. What? "It's not Monique!"

"Oh. Good." James sighed. "I mean…"

"Not that we have anything against someone... I mean... interracial..." Anne tried to recover the fumble.

"Heh." Thought Kim, but she may have said it aloud, because that brought both gazes directly back on her again.

"Kimmie..." Anne was piecing it together. "If we've met this person before and it's not Monique…"

"She… she actually lived with us for a week once. Do you remember…?"

And whatever Kim had been about to say next was forever lost to the ages as her Dad fainted.


	16. Chapter 16

_**All eyes in the room turned as Bobofeld, the sinister being once known as Bobo the Bonobo (a pygmy chimpanzee, though none would dare use the dreaded 'p' word in Bobofeld's presence) looked up from the private videophone which had occupied his attention. He did not look happy…. And even among the terrifying members of the Assemblage for the Proliferation of Evil Stuff, Hostility and International Terrorism (APESHIT,) an unhappy Bobofeld was incredibly bad news. Now Grod the Gorilla, Commandant Cheetah of the Chimp Fourth Reich, Lady Robin Barry Maurice Gibbons and Anti-Clyde, the evil clone of Clint Eastwood's favorite orangutan pal, all waited nervously to hear what dreaded words were about to issue from their leader's thinly haired lips.**_

"_**My incompetent cousin Yono has failed," Bobofeld growled in anger. "Stoppable still lives." **_

_What's that you say? I DID pass the 100 review mark? Yeah, but I didn't get my Junior HazMat suit so now I have to come up with something else for Halloween this year, so I'm taking out my anger in text. Be glad, it COULD have been a clinically graphic description of DNAmy and Duff Killigan's sexual escapades (to which I instead steer you to my opus "Kim Possible – Lethal" plug plug spoiler.)That said, on to-  
_

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, Doctor Betty Director, Wade Load, the Doctors Anne and James Possible, the Tweebs Jim and Tim Possible, Will Du and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Anna and Cyn are unique to this story but if you want to use 'em, Cyn says she's especially interested in Yuri action. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 16

Shego looked up from the cards, her eyes filled with worry. "Please tell me he didn't faint because of learning about… me? ... Us?"

To her relief, Kim smiled as she shook her head. "No, can you believe it turned out he had a touch of heatstroke? He'd been working on the grill and the Tweebs had done some of their mods with aluminum, which can cause some nasty problems if ingested in quantity… so he'd been out working in protective clothing to keep the oxidized stuff from getting on him. Mom, needless to say, was furious."

"Aaah," Shego let out a reassured sigh as she returned her gaze to the cards she had just dealt herself. Crap! Things had been going so well and she kept waiting for the other shoe to drop… it was morbid of her to be that way but… long years of experience had rewired her personality to expect good things not to last. "Well… that's good to hear. And afterwards…?"

"I think he and mom are okay with it," Kim shrugged, the sureness in her tone not quite reaching her eyes. "Provisionally. They want us to come to dinner sometime this week, probably to make sure I'm not under some form of brain control. I'll take two."

"Oooh, that'll be comfortable," Shego muttered, looking down at her hand. Two sevens and a bunch of junk. "Dealer takes three. So when are we going?"

"I told them I had to talk to you first before I could accept."

Shego looked up in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah," Kim's face was wearing one of those adorable perplexed looks she got when people asked question to which she thought the answers were obvious. "Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

"Um… let's just say that I'm not used to my opinion being part of the decision making process."

"Hmph." Kim snorted. "Well, get used to it. If we're going to be…"

"Partners?" Shego suggested when Kim seemed to falter for a second.

"I was going to say a couple." Kim grinned. "But I think my brain still hasn't caught up with the idea yet… I had one of those 'oh wow oh wow oh wow' moments."

Shego felt her heart catch as the redhead looked at her in a way that made her get all soft and gooey inside, having an 'oh wow oh wow oh wow' moment of her own. She wasn't used to feeling this happy… this wanted… in the good way, not as in the 'may be armed and extremely dangerous' sense, that is.

"It is still weird to think of…" She admitted tentatively. '_It's SO weird that we're sitting here, on a sleeping bag, in the middle of one of Drakken's old lairs that's OUR lair now.'_

"But in a good way," Kim confirmed. "What's weird, looking back, is how long it took me to figure it out." A bashful blush. "You know I had a photo of you in my locker, right?"

"Monique mentioned it," Shego nodded, deciding that there was no way the five, six and jack in her hand were going to mutate into wild cards_. Oh… let's be honest about it green girl, you seem to be laying every card on the table these days. _ "I might have had a couple of you, as well. And... uh… some of your clothes." _And maybe we won't mention the lock of hair you pulled from some duct tape. That IS kinda creepy._

"I'm not sure I want to ask… but come to think of it, I've got one of your catsuits too. And on that subject, I bid a pair of panties. What the hell were we thinking of?"

"That it would never work? That we were on opposite sides? That eventually you'd break down and join me on the dark side?" '_That I'd never dared believe someone like you could love someone like me…' _

"Are you going to raise the ante or what?" Kim asked after Shego had disappeared into an introspective silence.

Shego gave Kim a mock glare to cover the moisture forming in her eyes and further distracted by motioning to her complete lack of clothing. "With WHAT? The last five rounds I've been bidding things I'm borrowing from you."

"Well, it seemed to be only the way I'D ever get naked," Kim grinned. She was now down to just her socks and panties, most of which had actually been 'lost' by Shego. "I thought you were supposed to be a great poker player."

"I AM a good poker player," Shego insisted. "But if I hadn't set this place up myself, I'd swear you had a video camera behind me."

Kim had the decency to look sheepish. "Yeah… none of the kids at camp would ever let me play… except when we competed against the other camps. But look… all I've got is two sixes. If you bet the panties I'll loan them to you and then we can do something else."

"You're insane," Shego groaned. "Fine. Take them off and have your way with me. Again." She looked around the huge expanse of the lair. "Is there any place we HAVEN'T done it yet?"

(Not that she was complaining mind you, not really, but she wouldn't be Shego if she didn't have SOMETHING sarcastic to say.)

"Have to enjoy it while we can," Kim whispered in a voice that set Shego's senses tingling as she rolled onto her back to peel off the last of her garments with a flair most strippers would envy. God, was there _anything_ the Kitten couldn't do well? Oh yes, cook, so she probably was still human. And now that very naked and very human creature was crawling towards Shego on all fours with a look that promised that she was about to do something very bad and very good to a certain ex-villain.

"As of tomorrow, we're banished to our personal apartment," Kim was purring. "Cyn said she'd have a crew here in the morning to start bringing down the lights, and they MIGHT be a little upset to find us still sprawled out here in the middle of the floor. And then after that, Wade and my brothers are due to go over Drakken's old gear and I'm not sure I trust them not to leave a few cameras behind."

That brought up the other question that had been percolating in the back of Shego's skull, though it was perhaps inappropriate to bring up as she was being rolled onto her back by her aggressive little partner. "Uh… do THEY know?

"Well, Wade does…" Kim husked in her ear breathily. "It wasn't hard for him to put two and two together, especially after he read the incident reports from Du's assault team." This last said as she was staging an assault of her own on Shego's senses, with Sergeant Tongue leading the Rough Riders up Shego's pelvic ridge. "The Tweebs are still in the dark, though…. I mean, they know we're working together, but not…" And then, frustratingly, THAT's when Kim chose to really stop and consider the underlying question. "I guess what it comes down to is what you want? Do you even want to go for dinner… and how much of this… us… do you want to let people know about?

"Dinner… I do. Want to go that is. And you need to keep doing what you were doing or I'm going to have a premature plasma release and fry our bedding…."

Kim nodded and went back to her work and for a few minutes Shego wasn't capable of thinking about anything coherent beyond "Oh, God, YES!"

After a little while, though, the green woman had recovered enough to look at the precious face lying pressed against her belly.

"S..so… what do YOU want to do…? Keep it a secret?"

"No," Kim stretched contentedly. "I mean… not unless it makes you feel more comfortable… But I'd rather not." The girl who could do anything, and had just done a rather spectacular job of doing Shego, propped herself up on one of those surprisingly strong little arms and gazed up with one of those possessive little green stares that were as thrill-giving as anything she could do with the rest of her body.

"I'm proud, Shego. So proud that we… have what we have. I realize that maybe it's better if we don't take out ads in the papers, but I'm not going to hide it either. In fact, this may be a good time to warn you that I'm probably going to be really big on public displays of affection."

"Godamnit Possible," Shego growled to cover the fact that she was turning into a complete bowl of mush. "How am I supposed to remain a bitter cynic when you keep making me so happy?"

"Oh don't worry," Kim giggled as the green woman reached down and pulled her forward, holding her a few inches about her face. "I imagine the temporary staff we'll be getting from GJ will be enough to keep you all your grouchy-wouchy self."

And Shego had just come up with the perfect response to that when Kim clamped her lips over Shego's own and all thought of talk disappeared again.

#####

No! NO! This wasn't possible! THE WOMAN WASN'T HUMAN!

Will Du stared at the reassignment chart he'd just been handed. That was HIS name. Right there!

'NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

######

Half the floor, nearly 20 offices away, Betty heard Will Du's scream of shock and betrayal. She'd warned him that she would have to come up with something incredibly nasty. How convenient that Kim and Shego had supplied something even more horrible than she had imagined.

Yes, that was definitely the sound of Du's boots running towards her office door. Her locked office door. And that was his voice talking urgently with her receptionist. His screams for her to open the door. To send him to Antarctica! ANYTHING but THIS!

And on the other side of the door, Betty Director sat in her wonderfully comfortable chair and simply listened. And then, although it was terribly poor form, she just laughed and laughed.

#####

"Now remember, James, Kim said she doesn't like the name Ms. Go, so don't slip up and use that."

"So we have to call her Shego all the time? Or is it Ms. Shego?" Mr. Dr. Possible worried. "Seems awkward."

His wife's smile was thin and tight. "Well, we'll work it out, I'm sure. There they are now."

Except it wasn't them at the door. It was Jim and Tim.

"Sis and Shego are right behind us," Tim informed them before they could ask, motioning at something around the corner in the dark.

"Talking about something…" Jim added. "And I think…" He mimed a kissing action.

"Soooo weird" both boys said in unison.

"Ah… so I guess she told you," Anne nodded, a little taken aback.

"Kinda hard not to," Jim grinned. "The way they make googey eyes at each other."

"But you should see their place, Dad!" Tim enthused. "A lot of the gear is more advanced than the space center's!"

"And if not, It will be after you two monkeys get done with it," Kim announced, coming up the sidewalk with a bakery box in one hand and pulling a somewhat reluctant Shego behind her with the other. James eyes immediately went to their interlocked hands and the huge smile on his daughter's face and realized that he'd spent a lot of years worrying about the entirely wrong gender.

######

Anne looked across the table at the strange young woman her daughter had invited into their lives. She was rather surprised to see that Shego actually looked much younger than the Ms. Go who had stayed with them a year ago. After puzzling on it for a while, she finally realized that the difference was the make-up… or lack thereof. This Shego was wearing only a light eye-liner, while all the rest of her improbable coloring seemed to be entirely natural… if natural was the right term. The light green lips made for a much softer mouth than the old black lipstick had and…

That was the other thing. This Shego actually looked SHY. Odd, given that what she understood of the mind-control that the woman had been under the last time she'd stayed here, that should have repressed most of the woman's aggressive tendencies.

In fact, if there was one thing that stood out in Anne's eyes about Shego-now, it was the consideration she seemed to be intent of giving Kim. Not that the same emotions didn't seem to be flowing in the other direction as well. They were obviously trying not to be too open with their interactions at the table, but Anne had noted how often they seemed to find a reason to touch each other… how often they seemed to observe their partner with soft, appreciative glances.

'_My God,'_ was Anne's first thought. _'They really are completely besotted with each other.'_ Followed almost immediately by _'They're already sleeping together.'_ If they weren't, with this level of adoration flying back and forth, they'd be agitated to the point of frustration.'

And yet, there was more to it than simple infatuation… Anne had watched her daughter with her small circle of friends for years, and it was already apparent that Shego somehow bridged the difference between the girly-ness of Monique and the best-pal feel of Ron. And what she brought out in Kim was amazing. Anne had never seen her daughter so radiant… so literally glowing with energy… and given how energetic Kim was on a daily basis, that was saying something indeed.

And the more she watched, as the simple meal of chicken cacciatore _('For God's sake mom, no brain loaf!")_ disappeared, the more she became convinced that Kim was right. As inexplicable and bizarre as it seemed, she really had found 'the one' in the form of her former arch-enemy.

"So, Shego…" Anne began. "I understand that you and Kim are forming some kind of partnership?"

"Um, yes ma'am," Shego replied. "I mean, basically we'll be doing what Kim's always done on a bigger scale. It's mostly Princess' plan…"

"No, the organizational structure and ops plans are all yours," Kim countered. "You've got so much more experience working with large groups. And you know the financials are all going to be in your hands."

"You're used to working… with money?" Mr. Dr. Possible ventured.

"Well Doy," Kim and Shego responded together.

"Payrolls, equipment manifests… do you think Drew Lipsky handled unimportant stuff like that?" Shego added.

"Oh… I guess I just assumed he hired an evil accountant," James admitted.

Shego shook her head. "The problem with evil accountants is that they're evil. After I audited the books of the first three the Doc hired, I realized I was going to have to do it myself."

"And Shego's also done pretty well as an investor," Kim added.

"Um…" Shego mumbled.

"Didn't you have to surrender most of your… well, 'ill-gotten' gains for lack of a better term… when you accepted the pardon?" Anne wondered, knowing that this was embarrassing the woman but feeling it was important to get it out in the open. If Kim was going to have to _support _this person...

"Yes," Shego sighed. "But anything that was earned legally… money from before I had my uh…. lapse… And there were legal jobs on the side, and investments… I'd kept all the bookkeeping separate so I kept most of those."

"So… you're financially in… good shape?" James pressed.

Kim snickered and Shego glared at her, but it was the sort of glare Kim normally gave her younger brothers. "Yes sir."

"And, if it's not prying too much… that would mean you have…?"

"About 260 million dollars in hard cash, stocks and bonds." Shego blushed. "Plus some expensive toys."

'_Definitely NOT a gold-digger then,' _Anne thought as she remembered to close her jaw.

"Yeah, you were wondering who the unnamed customer who bought the Low Earth Orbiter prototype was, Dad?" Kim was saying, making a winking gesture.

"oh." James blinked. "Oh! But what would you…?"

"I like to fly." Shego shrugged. "Of course, now it'll be used to drop rapid insertion teams for Global Rescue until we can build something more practical."

"Yeah," Tim added, finally jumping into the conversation. "Shego had this great idea for a transporter with interchangeable hulls that could be kept permanently loaded for any type of mission."

"And long term, we'd be setting up a permanent space station," Jim added.

"IF the financing works out," Shego scowled. "But those are long, long range goals. For the near time, it'll be just me, Princess, Wade and some borrowed staff from GJ."

"And us," the boys spoke as one.

"We told you mom and dad have to approve first," Kim scolded. "And Ron and Rufus, if they're available, Monique's going to do some uniform design…"

"The usual suspects," Anne smiled. She was actually starting to warm to the green woman. Which brought up that other question…

But James beat her to it. "So… Um… Is there anything we can call you besides just Shego?"

"Sir?"

"I think what James meant is what's your real name Shego," Anne filled in. "We gathered that you'd prefer not to use the Ms. Go name anymore."

Shego and Kim looked at each other.

"You don't have to answer that, Shego," Kim spoke softly.

"No. It's fine Princess," Shego sighed, although it was evident to Anne that it really wasn't. "My name is just Shego "

"That's what's on your birth certificate?" Anne heard the words pop out of her own mouth.

"The person whose name was on my birth certificate was declared legally dead a week after the comet killed her parents and maternal grandmother," Shego stated in words drained of every emotion except pain. Anne heard her own intake of air, but before she could say anything, the pale woman plowed on.

"With four children all clinging to life support, none of her surviving relatives could afford to take on what would probably be millions in medical costs, especially after her parent's insurance company decided it was an act of God. So, since we were almost certainly terminal, probably no longer human but incredibly likely to be valuable for research purposes while we lived and… afterwards… the people in charge simplified things by creating new identities that would be permanent wards of the state." A brief pause for breath and to maintain control… "Of course, once we realized what had been done to us, we tried to get our relatives to reclaim us… but there were no takers. Not surprisingly, none of us have much attachment to our original family name these days."

The green woman forced a smile to her face, and at some point her hand had ended up in Kim's, who was clutching it back in tight reassurance.

"Actually, though, my FULL name is Shego-F," Shego concluded shakily. "Spectral Halation Emitting Genetically-altered Organism – Female."

"Oh…" Anne thought in a state of shock. _'God did we just put our foot in it. It's… no wonder the poor girl had been so messed up for so long.'_

"Personally, I think it's a pretty name," Kim smiled with the full force of her personality behind it, and Anne watched in amazement as, somehow, magically, the warmth of her daughter's smile transferred back over to the other woman's face… although her fingers would remain wrapped around Kim's hand for the rest of the meal.

"So Dad," Kim continued as if nothing had just happened, "How's the Neptune Explorer project going?"

#####

At least things got better after that, Shego reflected. Especially, once the cupcakes she and Kim had brought from her favorite shop were finished. Cupcakes made everything better. And then, when they moved to the living room, and the talk switched to aeronautics… a subject on which everyone except Mrs. Dr. Possible had an avid interest, the conversation got quite lively. Shego's experience co-designing and maintaining Drakken's fleet of hovercraft had come as a surprise to the others… except Kim, of course… and they'd been discussing contra-grav flows with enthusiasm when Anne suddenly interrupted with an odd question.

"I'm sorry Shego, but that's about the tenth time you've called Kim 'Princess.' Is there some significance to that?"

Kim just looked at her with a "Yeah, why?' expression.

"Well… I call her that because…" Shego fumbled for the right words… "Because she IS a Princess. Something incredibly important and valuable to…" She grinned as the perfect analogy presented itself. "…to a scary old green fire emitting dragon."

And in that moment, Shego knew she had won. Because the last bit of reserve she'd seen lurking in the eyes of Kim's mom finally disappeared. That the love she had for Kim had truly been accepted.

And after all, why shouldn't it be?

Everyone loves a storybook romance.

######

_**Post-script**_

_For those who were wondering, here are the names for Shego's brothers… and yes, for those who saw that I listed the number of children as four, I subscribe to the theory that the two Wegos were a single person originally… why else would they share the same name? _

_Herculean Enhanced Genetically-altered Organism - Male_

_Miniaturizing Enhanced Genetically-altered Organism - Male_

_Wide-extending Entity Group Organism - Male_


	17. Chapter 17

_**Back again. Sorry, no Bobofeld. Negotiating for a movie deal. **__Thanks once more for all the comments and reviews. I honestly AM probably going to slow down a little, at least as far as posting, as I'm about to make an international trip for a few weeks. The actual writing will continue and things will go up as I have internet access. (Still can read e-mail, etc., on the BB, just can't post to .) __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, Doctor Betty Director, Wade Load, the Doctors Possible, The Seniors Senor, the Tweebs Squared, the Will who Du and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Anna and Cyn are unique to this story but if you want to use 'em, they're starting to count the pages here and are sending out resumes. Jose Mendoza the GJ agent is asking for something called a 'fluffer." Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 17

######

"So what do you think?" Jim asked his evil twin… as far as they were concerned, of course, they were each each other's evil twin so every little bit of mischief they got into was _always_ the other's fault… with a puzzled looked in his eyes as he tried to make out what was going on through the tree limbs blocking the way.

"Definitely swapping spit," Tim replied, peering stealthily out of the upstairs window. "Looks like a lot of tongue action…"

"Here, let me look," Jim growled as he took the pair light-gathering, multi-occular excluding X-noculars that could, though some light bending tricks, essentially see through the trees, from his hoarding brother. "Why did we only build one pair of these?"

"Some stupid idea about sharing everything," Tim fired back with a _'what were we thinking'_ expression.

"Oh… argh…" Jim made a strained face and immediately handed the hand-sized surveillance scopes, which every intelligence agency on the planet would give their souls for, back to his twin. "Here, keep 'em."

"What's wrong?"

"I just watched my sister grab another girl's ass and…"

"And…?"

"I'm not sure if it should make me aroused or what, but I can already tell I'm going to have some seriously fucked up dreams tonight. This whole thing is just really…"

"…awkweird cubed," Tim agreed with a nearly identical look of dazzled be-puzzlement. "I mean… we always knew she was a little different, but who thought Kim would turn out to be a…?"

"Yeah. But we all knew it was going to take someone major to knock her off her feet, especially with Ron out of the picture…" Jim didn't really have to finish that thought. Kim really hadn't been herself since sometime before the Lowardians, and like their parents, they'd been completely unable to figure out what to do about it. "I guess she got tired of waiting for a guy who could measure up… to… well… HER…"

Shego had definitely impressed the boys. Not only had she been making modifications to the new facility with a GJ Tunnel Digger… a device that normally required two operators and the green woman was using as a hand tool… when they'd first arrived at the former lair, but she was doing the touch up work… punching out gobs of molten rock and steel, with her fingers. And then she'd turned out to be a whiz at avionics as well. And of course, she was hot. Uber hot. No wonder Kim was smitten enough to become a carpet muncher…

"Oh man," Jim groaned trying to get THAT image out of his head. "This is really going to screw up my sexual development."

"Uh huh, scary…" An even more weirded out look suddenly crossed Tim's face. "Hey…. You don't think that… if we couldn't… that we…?"

"Oh hell no, Tim, do not EVEN go there. We're just going to have to start looking for girls with brains now…"

"Or build them. Did you happen to notice that the schematics for Drakken's Bebes were still in his computers?"

"You're creeping me out again, Tim."

"Well, okay, but there's only one Justine Flanner and I'm claiming dibs."

####

Kim caught the slightest glimmer of a reflection from the upper window behind the trees out of the corner of her eye. She should have known. Prospective employees or not, it looked like the Tweebs were still going to be Tweebs.

Gently disengaging her lips from Shego, Kim waited for the amazing green eyes only inches from hers to open.

"What…?" Shego whispered softly.

"I think we're giving the neighborhood pervs a free show," Kim smiled, motioning back to her brother's window with a roll of the eyes and waggled eyebrows. They'd intended to wait 'til they got back to the car but… they'd been on their best behavior for the past three and a half hours and, well… the little 'just to hold us over' kiss around the corner had gotten out of hand. Way out of hand.

"And anyway," Kim finished. "I need to get my dragon back to her cave."

"Your dragon, huh?" Shego pretended to be affronted, but allowed the redhead to start steering them back to the waiting car.

"Hey, you're the one who came up with the analogy… And I… like the idea of having a special name for you. Besides, every Princess should have a dragon."

"As long as you don't call me Puff," Shego warned, then lapsed into a thought of amusement. "Though it does bring an interesting new meaning to the French le petit mort… "

"The little death? Ohhh… isn't that a euphemism for…?"

"That's right Princess," Shego smirked. "Feel up to slaying a few dragons tonight?"

"I think I could…" Kim began but was interrupted by the beep-beep bee-beep sound of the Kimmunicator. With a heavy sigh, she pulled out the device and hit "on.'

"What's the sitch?"

"Hey, Kim!" Wade smiled, then noticed the second face. "Uh… Shego. Was I interrupting something?

"We just finished dinner at my folks place," Kim sidestepped. "What do you have?"

"Well," the world's greatest technogeek began. "Do you remember a statue called the Bandara Ke Mahana Linga?"

Kim's face wrinkled in distaste. "That was the one that looked like…"

"That's the one." Wade nodded, not wishing to go into a description either. It had been quite a scary looking 'linga'… and well… Kong-sized.

"Right, I got it back when Monkey Fist stole it…. what about it?"

"Apparently someone just stole it again. From the high security wing of the National Museum of Kālpanika Rāstra."

"And they think I can get it back?" Kim groaned. "I don't suppose you checked on Monkey Fist?"

"Still doing time in Albuquerque."

"Okay… this is SO not convenient, but…" Kim broke off as she realized that Shego was shaking her head _'no.' _"What?"

"I thought we were going to concentrate on the rescues for a while?" The emerald woman reminded her.

"I… I am…" Kim knew she had meant it, and her partner was right, especially until they got their security in place… "But they asked for me, Shego. We can just run down there, take a look around…" Kim stopped in disbelief as Shego was shaking her head in the negative again. "NO?"

Shego didn't look happy about playing the bad guy. "I… uh… I'm not welcome in Kālpanika right now. A little side deal I did for Indian Intelligence, back when I was still with Team Go actually… but unfortunately it got declassified a few years back and no one thought in necessary to black out the name of the wanted felon."

"Okay," Kim sighed. "How about this? I go down there JUST to look, run some Kimmunicator scans with Wade and see if we pick up anything obvious. Then we'll give the info to the local authorities and I'll be right back."

"Right back as in a 15 hour flight there and 15 back, plus whatever time you spend on the ground?" Shego's eyes were full of concern. "You don't know what those idiots are like. If I could go with you…"

"I'll have Wade…"

"Um, Kim," the uncomfortable boy interrupted. "I'll be in my bedroom, not with you. If anything bad goes down…"

"How about if I promise to stick with the local police? This one time?"

Shego looked at her with a strange expression, but nodded slowly. "Okay. But keep your eyes open, and keep your Kimmunicator link to Wade on."

"I promise." Kim promised solemnly. "And Wade, can I do it now?"

"If by that you mean what I think you mean, yes."

Kim reached into her carrysack and pulled out a small green item. "I was going to gift-wrap it but…"

Shego's eyes were full of moisture again as she looked at the near perfect twin to Kim's Kimmunicator… it would have been perfect except for the black and green paint job that perfectly mirrored Shego's cat suit. But what was really affecting her was that the first three speed-dial settings had already been filled in: KIM CELL – WADE - HOME. HOME being the number that Middleton Telecom had just assigned to the Lair.

"We were trying to decide whether to call it a Shegofone or a Shecom…" Kim smiled. "Is one of those better for you?"

"I don't care what you call it as long as you call me," Shego sighed as she pulled the redhead into yet another embrace. Perhaps she was just being her usual pessimistic self, but she couldn't shake the idea that this was a bad idea… but Kim, being Kim, wasn't likely to be dissuaded by a 'feeling' of Shego's.

Which was a shame, as this time Shego's intuition was absolutely right.

#######

Junior put back down the phone and smiled. Everything was in motion. The game, as his father would say, was afoot. Or was that something he'd read in a book? He DID read occasionally. It seemed to have something to do with Jude Law, though. And Jude Law was a big star, so it was worth remembering.

Whatever. What was important was that Possible had taken the bait.

######

Kim looked up from the inflight magazine… it was the third time she'd gone over it, but her ability to read Hindi was rudimentary at best and trying to work it out was better than mulling over her last conversation with Shego again.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that her g… her lover… was right. This wasn't really even a matter that Kim needed to get involved in. No one's life was at stake, it was just a stupid statue. Of a monkey penis no less. A giant, gold plated, ruby adorned monkey penis but still…

And she was just getting a bad feeling about the whole thing. Be honest, Possible, there's something in your gut that doesn't feel right about this.

So why was she sitting here in the non-reclining bulkhead seat Wade had been able to squeeze out of Air Mumbai?

Force of habit. She'd been doing the mission thing so long that when Wade called, she'd gone automatically into roll-out mode. So instead of spending the rest of the night with Shego, celebrating the fact that her parents seemed to be accepting the light of her life into theirs, she'd been eating reheated palak paneer at 30,000 feet. Way to go Possible, way to show her how much you care about her.

When she got back, she was so going to owe Shego, big time. A nice dinner out, maybe and… dancing? Where did gay couples go to dance? God, she didn't understand any of this. Maybe she could ask Cyn… this Lt. Ellis the blonde woman seemed to be developing a thing for seemed tied into the GLBT side of Middleton.

And that meant REALLY coming out, of course. To the world. Because eventually people were going to figure out that two girls who were always together were more than just close friends. Really close friends. Although, to be truthful, while the sex WAS fantastic, the friendship part of the relationship really was the most important part. Kim hadn't realized how much she needed someone else to be there for, how much of her personality was dependent on having someone else to talk to. She'd never realized it for most of her life because she'd had Ron; it was just a given. No wonder she'd gone into such a depression when she'd cut herself off from everyone else. Just proof that you could be a genius and still be an idiot.

God, she wanted to talk to Shego right now. Stupid airlines and their 'no cell phones' policy. The Kimmunicator and Shegofone didn't even use the standard cell frequencies, but she'd seen the scowling looks on the flight attendants'' faces every time she pulled it out, just to look at Shego's name where it had now moved to the number one position on her speed dial.

The next time her dragon told her she should stay home, she would.

But in the meantime, well, a tiny little text wouldn't hurt. On speed burst mode.

And when she got to ROKR International Airport, she'd call Shego. And tell her the same thing out loud.

She was still thinking about that when she ran into the wall of guns.

######

"Kim's been WHAT?" Shego screamed at the shivering face on the fortunately fireproofed Shegofone. All the noise that had been filling the lair cut off instantly as the woman's voice erupted like Vesuvius, workmen dropping their tools and staring at the green woman who was suddenly literally flaming mad.

"Arrested!" Wade wailed. "A bunch of cops grabbed her as she was coming in through customs. Took her Kimmunicator and hauled her off to Jail!"

"Wait." Shego interrupted, pulling herself under control with the experience born of getting her troops out of hundreds of exploding lairs. "Wade. Are you absolutely SURE they were cops? Kālpanikanese police wear green uniforms with red trim…"

"Yes, they're real police." Wade nodded. "They took the Kimmunicator to the Police Station with them. That's how I know that's where Kim is. They never even let her have a phone call."

"That's because they don't do that. In Kālpanika they're more likely of the cut off your hands and apologize later if they're mistaken school." Okay, this wasn't helping anyone. "Wade? Am I the first person you've called?" At the boy's nod, she continued. "Alright, I appreciate that, and don't take this the wrong way, because I know you meant well, but I'm not the person you should have called first. I can't do jack shit. Can you get us on a three-way with Doctor Director?"

"Um yeah…" Wade nodded, finally getting his head together as Shego's take=charge attitude took some of the burden off of him. "I should be able to do that."

"Good," Shego fumed. "Then do it and let's figure out how to get Kim back. Before I have to declare war on a South Asian nation personally."

Wade's expression of terror was entirely unfaked as he began running through his list of contact points for Doctor Director. He knew what Shego had in her private arsenal, he was well aware she was capaple of making good on the threat.

And while he worked, Shego spent her time re-reading the last message she'd got from Kim.

Just three words.

I LOVE YOU

####

Will Du found himself running down the hallway and out the back door of the apartment building where he'd lived the last two years. It was a run-down facility that specialized in furnished apartments… ideal for someone who never knew when he might suddenly be transferred to another part of the world for an unexpected period of time. If it couldn't fit in the combined space of his suitcase, garment bag and foot locker, Will didn't own it.

Right now he had the first of those two items as well as half the contents of the third tucked under his arms as he exited into the rear parking lot to see a sight he'd never thought he'd see.

What appeared to be the offspring of a mating of the Space Shuttle and a falcon was perched in the open area of blacktop surrounding the communal basketball hoop. It was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful vehicles will had ever seen, which made the presence of a Global Justice emblem on its 19 foot tall tail especially puzzling, as he knew for a fact that GJ had no such vehicle. As he got closer, the riddle resolved itself as he saw that the logo was actually a standard decal normally used on field labs, technical support vans and the like, and it's placement on such a magnificence ship bordered on the level of graffitti. On the other hand, the two-foot lettering just above the wings reading GLOBAL RESCUE ONE was fully professionally painted.

So much for that mystery. Whatever this jet/rocket hybrid was, it was clearly two steps beyond leading edge, which indicated broadly of Possible and her connections at the Middleton Space Center.

The combined door/entry ramp was almost to the ground as he hit the first step and whoever was controlling it was obviously on the ball. It was rising again before he'd hit the fifth step, and when he entered the main cabin, he saw that the entire vehicle was completely open inside from sternum to cockpit.

The pilot, an oddly familiar young black woman in a black jumpsuit, motioned him forward to one of four shock-seats directly behind her. Du shoved his gear quickly into the cargo-net behind the seats and began buckling himself in.

And that's when he realized where he knew the woman from.

"For this trip, my name's Monique," Shego informed him briskly. "How much did Dr. Director have time to tell you?"

"Not much," Du admitted, still goggling at the state of the art make-up job. It wasn't makeup, her skin actually WAS a deep, rich brown. How had Shego done it?

"Then we'll brief you in flight," the world's most dangerous woman was nodding, ignoring his scrutiny as she finished her pre-flight check with blazing speed. "Now hold onto your testicles. We're going to be going a little fast."

And that, Du realized, was an understatement. The former Low Earth Orbiter prototype, slightly modified with a few bits of borrowed Drakken and Lowardian technology, leapt into the sky, frantically accelerating to its maximum cruising speed of Mach 7.3.

And then Shego floored it and kicked in the afterburners.

The resulting 'skyquake' rattled windows as far away as Go City.

####

Kim was really starting to understand why Shego had such issues with the Kālpanikanese. This whole mission had gone south the minute she stepped off the plane and into the so called "customs area." For about six seconds she'd thought 'an honor guard to meet me?" and then she'd realized that all those guns were being brought to aim at her navel. Under normal circumstances, she could have escaped easily, but she was in a terminal filled with innocent civilians and none of these uniformed idiots seemed to have the common sense to realize that if they shot at her, some of them were going to end up shooting other people! Or, she'd realized seconds later, they just didn't care. And then there was the problem that, even if she did take off, she'd be in a hostile foreign country and it might take weeks to make her way to a neighboring country or someplace where she could arrange a safe pickup.

So, running through all those options in her head in the handful of seconds after the guns raised, she'd opted to simply raise her hands and surrender so that she could find out what this whole mess was about. And THAT was the stupidest part of all!

"You think I stole the stupid statue?" She'd boggled at Colonel Khangālanā, the bloated micro-cephalic wonder who wore the uniform and badge of 'Senior Inspector, SIra Bata Region' over his distended belly.

"That is correct," He'd gloated. "We have the whole thing on video."

"What?"

"Indeed," the obese Colonel smirked, "You thought you were so clever to come back and pretend to offer help, when in fact you were the one who stole the Linga in the first place!"

"Uh huh. And I don't suppose you want to show me this video?"

"You will see it at your trial. Which will be next Tuesday."

Having finally realized that she'd walked into a Kafka play, Kim had let herself be led back to the holding area of the prison. By that time the matron they'd been waiting on had finally arrived and Kim had been subjected to a strip search… not that they found her hidden weapons, as they let her keep her shoes and there was no cavity search… thank God. But it was still beyond humiliating, and the prison jumpsuit they'd given her hadn't seemed to have been cleaned since its previous owner.

It stank. The cell stank. The whole sitch stank worse than shit on a burner.

With an angry growl, Kim leaned back on the tiny bench that was the only object of furniture in the cell. Well, unless you counted the bucket as furniture if you thought of it as the porcelain fixture it was intended to replace. If worse came to worst, she could bust out of this place with little more than the paperclip she'd snagged off Khangālanā's desk and kept in her mouth through the search. But Wade and Shego knew where she was, and she had faith that they'd find a way to get her out of this.

She just hoped they'd do it before she had to kill someone. Because in her current mood, she very easily might do it.

_Post note: Kālpanika Rāstra is a fictitious country. In fact, that's what the name means in Hindi, although it's been mangled a bit to make the phonetic pronunciation work on . Most of the other names are evolved from Hindi as well, simply because Google Translate is so darned convenient… but no relationship to India should be interpreted beyond the fact that they apparently don't get along. In the great tradition of Dr. Strangelove, Khangālanā's name comes from a certain feminine hygiene product._


	18. Chapter 18

_Okay, yeah, every time I say I'm going to slow down, I knock out another chapter even faster. What can I say… I went to a HORRIBLE High School play this evening and had to get the stink of the royalty-free script out of my head. But I really am going to be out of town… really. Also, if it's not obvious by now, I have a huge nerd-on for the classic Gerry Anderson shows… as well as the newer CG version of Captain Scarlet… so expect more references and outright steals. But seriously, can you NOT imagine Shego at the controls of a Skydiver and not drool? Well… I can't anyway. So the question is, is Cyn's Lt. Ellis THAT Ellis? Well, she's obviously Gay… Finally, I'd like to thank those who've sent in reviews and comments, but it's been kind of lean lately. Makes me feel… sniff sniff… unappreciated. Do I have to resort to more Bobostortion? __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, Doctor Betty Director, Wade Load, the Doctors Possible, Senor Senior Jr., Will Du and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 18

######

The flight across the Atlantic was the eeriest Will had ever made. He'd made similar runs twice in SR91 Auroras, the officially non-existent mach 6 replacement for the SR71 Blackbird Spyplane. but the Auroras barely had enough room for a passenger in addition to the pilot, being essentially hypersonic flying gas tanks. Global Rescue One, on the other hand, despite being FASTER than an Aurora, was huge in comparison. Huge and empty.

Almost as empty as the eyes of the woman who sat nearly motionless behind the main controls.

After their briefing with Doctor Director, Shego had essentially tuned out everything except the view through the huge cockpit window, beyond which an ocean and now whole continents were rushing past with impossible speed only possible due to their actually being outside of all but the thinnest layer of Earth's exosphere. That would imply that the ship was really more of a rocket than a jet, but even so Will had no idea how the ship could make a journey like this without refueling. He just hoped they had enough to get them back once they had retrieved Kim.

Of course, if they didn't get Kim released, Will had a sneaking feeling that he was going to have to find his own way back home. And that… made him feel ashamed.

After his initial dismay at finding out Doctor Director had okayed his temporary transfer to the new Global Rescue organization, Will had dutifully picked up the operations manual Possible and Shego had prepared… and had been more than just impressed. It was brilliant work, born of a synergy of two minds so tightly interwoven that no detail seemed to escape. One detail of which had been a certain Will Du.

It hadn't been out of spite that they'd requested him. They'd simply felt that he was the best possible choice… they'd actually written that in those exact words, along with a few others like 'anal' and 'obsessive'… and in becoming the day to day ops manager of the new team they were building, they were basically giving him the status of third in command. Oh, technically Wade was ahead of Will in terms of ops structure, but in every essential part of day to day operations, he was being given the chance to put his own permanent imprint on what could become one of the most major international organizational developments of the 21st century. No wonder Doctor Director had laughed when he'd begged for a transfer. He'd just got the biggest promotion of his life.

Now he had to prove that he was worthy of that trust. Because if something happened to Kim, they were going to lose Shego as well. And not just in terms of service as an operative. The look on her face as they had received the update on the _'Colonel'_ who had Kim locked up indicated she'd probably kamikaze if things couldn't be resolved through other methods. How likely that was depended upon whether the man really was the blithering idiot he seemed to be on the surface, or if he had a deeper political or financial motivation. Du just hoped he wasn't aware of the offer of $10 million someone had been floating on the internet for the last year for the capture and delivery of Possible. So far no one had been crazy enough to risk the major shitstorm that such an act would incur for such a small amount of money, but this Khangālanā might really be that stupid.

He looked back the rear half of the space place again. Like the organization they were building, it was still unfinished. The open area behind the seats was obviously waiting for new fixtures to be installed… holes had been drilled in the wall, reinforced strapping hung in strategic positions and the padding that had covered parts of the wall had been removed. In addition, the entire back third of the cabin had some kind of blue textured paint splashed across the hexagonal honeycomb metal flooring. What was supposed to go back there? Will had no idea.

"Shego…?" he finally said, breaking a silence that had lasted nearly four hours.

At first he thought she hadn't heard him, but finally she turned and he could see that she wasn't talking because just holding in the emotions she was feeling was taking every bit of strength she had.

"We'll get her out of there," Will promised, and… he'd never have believed this a few days ago… reached out and touched her shoulder reassuringly.

And after another long moment, she simply nodded, touched his hand gently, then turned her eyes back to the stars in the black sky above the Earth.

######

Kim Possible, world renowned heroine, recently self-discovered lesbian and current prisoner of the Republic of Kālpanika Rāstra lay on the tiny bench in her cel, staring at the ceiling. It was somewhat less bug infested than the floors, which made it a more attractive choice, but her eyes weren't really seeing anything. For the last hour or so, she'd turned so inward that she wasn't really even seeing her own thoughts, dropping into that strange zone she sometimes felt where _'nothing'_ seemed to exist. Not a place of emptiness, exactly, but one where all possibilities seemed to be equally valid.

But then something intruded, and the possibilities began to slide dynamically in a single, unified direction. A new balance came to the universe and it was a sound that acted as the pivot. A sound she'd heard only two days before as she and Shego had put their first operational vehicle through its test paces. Okay, to be honest, they'd been joyriding, and the few seconds where Shego had allowed Kim to take the controls had been as magical as everything else they did.

The sound of those engines was unlike anything else in the world.

And now, hearing them, in the distance, approaching….

Kim smiled.

######

The Republic of Kālpanika Rāstra wasn't big on international treaties. The closest they'd ever been to active involvement with the United Nations was a shipment of "Trick or Treat for Unicef" boxes that had been accidentally shipped there in the '70's. Which they'd kept. Their odds of making the G-20 were about as likely as a three-legged horse winning the triple crown… not because they weren't a developing nation, but because they just didn't tend to play well with others. In fact, just about the ONLY international organization with which the Kālpanikanese interfaced with regularly was Global Justice, and that was due to the phenomenal number of illegal operations that seemed to be laundered through the country. However, the fact that GJ was already an established legal entity operating within the country made certain things a little easier. As a full agent of GJ, Will Du didn't need a visa to enter the country. Which was why, rather than landing at the municipal airport, Sheg…"Monique" and Will opted instead to land on the front lawn between the Sira Bata Region Police Headquarters and the Regional Holding Facility… better known to the locals for unknown reasons as "the Hotel." Not only did it make a more lasting impression, it was also faster.

"Just don't say anything about who you are and let me cover that," Will told the formerly green woman carefully as he finished going over his GJ Dress Blues one more time. Both the psych profiles and Shego's own recollections indicated that although Kālpanika Rāstra didn't officially support a caste system, there was a socio-economic equivalent that basically split the rich from the poor on a nearly insurmountable basis. Looking well dressed and 'fancy' equaled power, so Will was dressed to the nines and spit polished. Shego, much against her grain, had agreed that she would be his 'assistant,' and to give truth to that exaggeration carried a small tablet computer.

"Teaching your grandmother how to suck eggs, Will?" Mo-shego scowled softly. She didn't like the idea of trusting Kim's future to Du and not herself, but Doctor Director had a point, and the pysch's analysis that a high ranking male member of GJ would probably carry the most weight with the Kālpanikan officials was probably correct.

"No ma'am," Will responded with equally little humor. "Just trying to do my job."

######

Junior was now completely freaking out. Nothing was going according to plan! His contact at the museum had made sure the tape and information got to the police, and he'd had his men ready to grab Possible on the way to the museum. But instead, as he'd found out later, she'd never even made it out of the airport! The LOCAL POLICE had taken her! What in the hell was going on with these people? And now she was in the damn jail, adjacent to the police department itself, and in the one place he couldn't perform a simple snatch and grab. On the streets of Kālpanika Rāstra, a girl being pulled into a van by the side of the road wasn't even enough of an oddity to care about, unless it was a relative perhaps. Were it not for the disease and generally worn quality of the local females, Junior would have considered vacationing here himself.

But in the Jail… it wasn't much of one by the standards Junior had visited, but the security was still there, and it had taken him several hours to corrupt the right people, to pay the right bribes…

And now, just when he was almost ready, GLOBAL JUSTICE was here? He peered across the street from the upstairs vantage point he'd taken. What the hell was that vehicle? And who were the two GJ agents who had gone into the prison? They both looked extremely familiar… probably some of the bastards who'd mocked his in-prison concert.

Whatever, he knew that things were getting way too hot for him to remain in the area. His NEW men would either succeed or they wouldn't. Either way, he'd grabbed some great footage and the Linga would look quite nice sitting in his living room until Monkey Fist escaped jail. It reminded him quite a bit of himself.

######

Colonel Khangālanā checked his e-mail again. It was beyond frustrating. He KNEW that someone, somewhere, was offering a fortune for the Possible woman, and the dumb creature had actually showed up at his airport after committing a crime…

But he couldn't figure out who was actually making the offer, and there was only so much time before the Americans were bound to send one of their diplomats to get her back.

Ironically, at that very second, the door of his office flew open, and it wasn't the Haima Saindavica he had ordered from his favorite restaurant.

######

Will Du barged into the 'office' of Colonel Khangālanā with a practiced look of disdain. It wasn't hard. Everything he'd seen here had indicated a system that had neither order or logic… unless that logic was to inflate the ego of the upper echelon of the police. He'd noted a half-dozen high-end computers running, but with the keyboards gathering dust, on a handful of very expensive mahogany desks, while the regular officers and clericals were all still working with paper… PAPER… forms! The wastage in staple and expendable costs alone had to be phenomenal. And no doubt added to the general reputation of the local police being available for a price… something that the fact that none of the 'officers' who HAD the expensive equipment even seemed to be in the station would seem to back up.

Except for Colonel Khangālanā himself. The Colonel had the very latest gaming quality laptop, currently open to his own Facebook page… as well as another desktop that was unplugged. The office was more of a Shrine to all things Khangālanā… pictures of the man with various entertainment personalities, foreign diplomats and, oddly, Mother Teresa… although a closer examination revealed that to be a photoshop paste-up. What was noticeably lacking were any pictures of fellow law officers.

Further bringing the self-worshiping officer's opinion in Du's eyes was the fact that he hadn't even looked up as Du entered unannounced. It had been an intended insult, but apparently Khangālanā was so unaware of his situation that he hadn't even…

"Put it on the desk," the Colonel suddenly said, his attention still on his facebook page.

"ATTENTION!" Will barked in his best training instructor voice. That had the desired effect of Khangālanā almost jumping out of his oversized skin as he snapped to his feet in the sloppiest example of a salute Du had ever seen. Almost as disgusting as the multiple tires peaking out of the man's overstrained shirt.

"You are Colonel Congollama?" Du snapped tightly, intentionally mispronouncing the name, "The idiot who arrested Kim Possible?"

"I… I'm Khangālanā," the man flushed, attempting to regain his own bravado. "And who are you? How did you get in my office?"

"I am Will Du, special assistant to Doctor Director, head of Global Justice. And this… " Will motioned to Shego, "Is MY assistant. As for how I got here, I walked in past the worst security I've seen in my entire career in law enforcement."

"Now, Colonel Congealianna" He repeated "What is this patently ridiculous bullshit your people have come up with to hold Ms. Possible, a citizen of the United States, without warrant?"

That finally lit a fire in the fat oaf.

"It is not bullshit! We have video of the entire event!"

Will's nose wrinkled. The man's words had an edge of truth behind them but smelled suspiciously off. "This would be the event that took place approximately 19 hours before Ms. Possible took a 15 hour flight to arrive here? On a commercial flight with nearly two hundred eye-witnesses?" Khangālanā withered a little on that one, so Will pushed forward.

"And that would have been AFTER leaving a special meeting between herself, the co-head of the new international aid organization Ms. Possible is founding with the aid of Global justice, one of the world's leading aeronautics experts AND one of the United States top medical experts, all who can also readily attest to the fact that Ms. Possible couldn't have possibly been in Kālpanika Rāstra at the time of said event?" Will bit back his savage sneer as he realized that all those times he'd spent in Doctor Director's hot seat were finally bearing some fruit. If there was one thing he knew how to do, it was how to hoist officious, obnoxious little bureaucrats by their own petard.

"I don't care what you have witnesses to say," Khangālanā blustered. " I have reviewed the video. It will stand up in court."

"Perhaps you should let me see this video then."

"I can't… it's… locked up."

"Really?" The only thing that Will hated more than a liar was an obvious liar. However, as he'd already proven, Will had no problem with 'massaging' the truth.

"Colonel Connesttangna… Are you denying a representative of an international law enforcement agency, with which your nation has a signed treaty of cross-authority, access to evidence pertaining to an ALLEDGED event for which you are about to create a major international incident?"

#####

Shego watched as Will slowly tore away at the Colonel's credibility and authority. She had to admit, Betty had been dead on when she said that Du was the one to interface with the Kālpanikanese.

The man's stiff, officious approach was doing a far better job than Shego's go-fo-the gonands approach could have ever done, and if she wasn't mistaken, Congobongo… damnit, now Will had HER doing it… was about to crack.

"Fine!" the Kālpanikanese officer growled as predicted, opening the top drawer of his desk and pulling out a single DVD-R. "Here! See for yourself."

The fat man quickly put the disc in his laptop and turned the screen to face them.

Fortunately, Shego had actually been in the National Museum before, so she had a good idea of what she was seeing. This was footage of the main "Hall of Treasures," mostly items that previous generations of Kālpanikanese had appropriated from other nearby nations, but a few items of true domestic historical value. The infamous Linga, a jeweled phallus the size of a… well, a four foot high penis… sat in the middle of the room protected by nothing more than a few posts and some velvet rope. This was high security? Apparently the spot lights that were directly on the Linga never turned off, so that central section of the color image was ever so slightly over-exposed while the rest was severely under -lit. Nevertheless, when the plain rope dropped down from the ceiling and the female figure rappelling down it first appeared, there was more than enough light to see the brilliant red hair that apparently had been sufficient evidence for the keen detective mind of Colonel Cunilingua.

Of course, anyone who'd ever SEEN Kim could tell this wasn't her. Kim would have flowed down that rope like honey and this girl… whoever it was… while athletic, was obviously having a bit of a time. Still, she got to the bottom and once standing in the light, the hair WAS Kim's signature shade, but at the same time, the second obvious giveaway was also glaring.

"Hair length." She whispered softly to Will. There was something else important she'd noticed, but there was no easy way to point that out yet.

"Hmm?" He looked over as she flashed all five fingers on her left hand twice. "Oh yesss… dead right."

They continued to watch as the girl in question wrapped the rope around the statue, made a waving motion and watched as it was slowly raised through what Shego recalled was a skylight.

An open-able skylight in a High Security area? Whoever had stolen the stupid statue might as well have walked in with a dolly and carted it out. If she was an insurance company, she'd refuse to pay on grounds of complete stupidity!

They continued watching as the girl… they never did get a good look at her face… raised a familiar looking object, a perfect reproduction of one of Kim's hairdryer/grappling guns. She fired it upwards, again, off camera, and then was suddenly pulled up and out of the shot.

At that point Khangālanā hit the stop button on the laptop's dvd player and looked up with a smug "You see?"

"Oh I see, indeed, Colonel." Will was doing his best to look down his nose. "I see that the woman in this shot has hair that is SHORTER than Ms. Possible's. Are you suggesting that, in addition to all the other impossible things you're suggesting she's done today, that she also somehow grew nearly 10 inches of hair in less than 20 hours? Because if so, you should be pressing for her hair-growth secrets, not the location of your Linga.

"It's not my Linga, it's THE Linga," snarled Khangālanā.

"No, it's whoever took its Linga now," Will countered, "Which was certainly not Miss Possible… who, if you'll recall since it was your own museum staff that requested her presence, has already had it in her possession once before and could just have easily never admitted to recovering it."

"There's another thing," Shego spoke up, trying to be as 'secondary' as she could. "Sir."

"What's that Monique?" Will asked smoothly.

"Well, there's the question as to who the other four people involved are."

"What?" Will and Khangālanā asked in unison.

"Someone obviously was on the roof operating some kind of winch," Shego pointed out. "And then there are the other three in the room."

"What other three?" That was Will.

Shego hit the DVD play button again, and then, just as "Kim" was about to rope the statue, pointed to a spot in the darkness just beyond.

"That's a reflection of a camera lens. At first I thought it was another security cam, but then I noticed that it moved. Can we… yes." She used the digital zoom function to enlarge that area. It was dim, but another human silhouette was definitely behind the camera.

"Once I saw that I started looking and…" She hit pause and pointed out two more VERY indistinct figures. "…noted subjects D and E." With that she threw it back into Will's hands. Fortunately, he caught it deftly.

"So… " Agent Du glared. "Not only do we have what appears to be a fake Kim Possible, but it appears that she only entered the room AFTER at least three others had. We'll want to have the ENTIRE tape for that night so we can…"

"NOW SEE HERE!" Khangālanā erupted. "I have had just enough of YOU telling ME how to do MY job! I will conduct this investigation as to who these other individuals are and I will ask you…"

Shego was about to have a flare-up of her own, but Will was already ahead of her.

"Ask me to what, Colonel?" Du's tone was cold but arced with a deadly undercurrent of electricity. "Might I suggest that you might wish to speak to your own superiors about that before you do anything you'll regret for the rest of your life?"

"And in the meantime, I suggest you let us go see Miss Possible now, before I show you exactly how far my authority does extend."

"You," he growled, "Are crap beneath my boots, _'Colonel,'_ and we are going to take OUR girl home, if it means walking over your body to do it…"

####

"Woman!" Kim looked up, not really sure if the toothless, bleeding gummed jailer really didn't know her name, simply didn't care or malevolently thought calling her simply her gender was an insult, but ever since hearing the familiar thrumming sounds of the Orbiter's… now Global Rescue One's… engines, she'd been expecting someone to come around to talk to her.

"Your friends have arrived," the man she'd come to think of as Pyorrhea Pete was unlocking the door of her cel as two other guards waited behind him. He didn't seem too happy, and Kim didn't give a shit. "You need to come. Now."

No kidding, Kim thought with relief. With any luck, Shego wouldn't have caused too much damage, but she wouldn't blame her if she had. The first time it had come to a test of Kim's trust of Shego's instincts and it had all gone in the crapper.

She idly wondered if she'd get any of her clothing back as she stood and walked out of the cell. That matron had been eyeing it enviously. And certainly the nervous way Pete was twitching indicated…

Wait. Why were there four more guards waiting for her at the end of the hall? When they were letting her go?

With a scream of terror, Pete threw himself to the floor. That gave Kim just enough time to notice the hypodermic needle in the guard to her right's hand before it was being jabbed into her side. She shoved herself down in that split second and it stuck in a rib instead of going all the way in. FUCK!

With no idea how long whatever it was she'd just been injected with would take to bring her down, she exploded into action. To buy time until Shego could get to her. Even as she was moving, snapping off her needle in her side, her arms were came up in a violent arc, slamming down on the ears of the man who'd injected her. It was the kind of move she never normally used and the concussive force ruptured his eardrums, probably causing permanent brain damage as well, but she'd held back just enough not to kill.

For her next target Kim didn't have time to worry about being fancy… her elbow came back with enough force to shatter bone and the sternum of the man on that side caved in. She had to hope that had put him out of action, because within the same split second, she'd pulled the weapon from the needle man's holster, clicked off the safety and began rolling forward in a shoulder vault while simultaneously emptying the magazine into the four still standing directly in front of her. She wouldn't kill them if she could help it, but there was no way they were going to carry her out if they couldn't walk, and they couldn't walk if they couldn't stand. Bam bam bam! No kneecaps, no knees! That didn't mean they still couldn't go for their weapons though. She'd maimed and crippled all four, but while she was still making sure that none of them had the presence of mind to go for their guns, she became aware of that the second man, the chest attack, wasn't out of it at all.

In fact, he was bringing his weapon to bear at her head, all thoughts of bringing her back alive apparently discarded as he sought to save his own life against the nightmarish she demon that had just carved his cohorts into an abattoir full of chopped meat. In a drowning haze, Kim saw her own hands come around, shoving the barrel of his gun back with such force that the trigger finger snapped completely backwards and then TORE off as the guard ripped into the flesh like a cigar cutter… but all that came too late. The bullet had fired. A searing pain erupted across her head as what felt like a hundred Shegos slammed above her left ear…

'_Shego,'_ she thought…. and then she was falling into an endless dark chasm as pain and unconsciousness swallowed her.


	19. Chapter 19

_**So… about that cliff-hanger last time. **__No apologies, sorry. I'm an evil bastard and I know it… although once you start reading this chapter, I imagine I'll be called worse than that. _

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, Doctor Betty Director, Wade Load, the Doctors Possible, Jim and Tim Possible, Will Du and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 19

######

The illicitly taken casket photos of the body… still so young… were an epithet in pictures splayed across the supermarket tabloid section of grocery stores across the nation.

Don't dare to dream, they seemed to whisper. All dreams come to an end.

Thousands of mourners attended the funeral, hundreds of heads of state and dignitaries among those filing slowly past her body where it lay in state. Millions more watched the service on TV. A national tragedy, the TV commentators were calling it, for a life so full of promise to be snuffed out so early, so senselessly. This all being said while the zoom lenses of the cameras focused and lingered on her family… on her mother weeping uncontrollably, on her father, still in such shock that he seemed made of stone, and on her twin brothers in their unfamiliar suits, attempting so hard to appear strong and simply failing. And then they would move inexorably, past the two grieving best friends and on to the other woman. To that face once so infamous and feared. Now she was barely recognizable, the being behind those dead green eyes soulless and shattered.

But… wasn't this inevitable, went the undercurrent of voices? As if her death symbolized the end of all she'd planned to achieve. As if that brief spark of hope was somehow gone forever… because who else could ever carry the flame? Who else would even _TRY?_

_No._

NO!

This was all wrong. They couldn't make it about her. They mustn't! It had never been about her. Things this important couldn't be all allowed to die. She could but THEY COULDN'T!

Dark clouds roiled, absorbing the vision as she forced her thoughts elsewhere. Trying to find something else. A place where hope survived…

There… YES!

Now her mother still weeped, but they were tears of joy. Her father's face was stiff, but it was with nerves, preparing for the task he was about to perform gladly, and her brothers… still in suits, but now holding papers, directing guests…

And she was in white, her dress a perfect match for the other… the one worn by the woman she had come to love like no other.

As their eyes met, an exchange of fire swept between them, an invisible force that no one except them could see or feel.

Not yet.

But soon that fire would expand and encompass the new life stirring within her. Her soulmate's gift to her, and her gift in return.

That was the destiny she wanted. She would will it to be.

It HAD to be!

And with that thought, she disappeared into the glorious white future between her true love's arms.

#####

"PRINCESSS! PRINCESSS!" The voice seemed to be coming from a million miles away, and a curtain of velvet agony seemed to be covering half her awareness.

"Shgo?" Even her own voice seemed soft and oddly muted. But the vision in front of her told her that if she had died, Heaven was more wonderful than she could have imagined.

Something important she'd had to say...? Oh, yes.

"Love you," she smiled.

"Oh thank God, thank God!" Shego's face… something odd about it… seemed to collapse in on itself in a single massive sob as she grabbed Kim and pulled her to her chest in a desperate embrace. "And I love you too but we're in a bit of situation right now."

Kim blinked the world back into focus and discovered that she was still in the aisle outside the jail cells, in pretty much the exact same place that she remembered collapsing. Which would help explain why her head hurt so much.

She was also, she slowly began to realize, completely deaf on the one side of her head. But that was a problem to worry about later. Following Shego's eyeline, she saw that at the far end of the row, Will Du… WILL DU? was standing off a half dozen Kālpanikanese police including Colonel Khangālanā with a taser. He was saying something, and as Kim painfully turned her head it became clearer…

"…trusting your facilities to keep her alive after this, Colonel."

######

The Kālpanikanese official was genuinely taken aback… no, if he was honest with himself, he'd damn near lost control of his bladder a few times. For all the many years he'd been in charge of this office, he'd never seen a situation quite like this. Six men reduced to bloody cripples by a teenage girl, and two apparently even more dangerous GJ agents now protecting her, one with some kind of… LASER gun aimed at his head. IN the middle of his own prison! And that man was the LESS scary of the two! When they'd heard the shots, the black woman had erupted with a burst of what looked like green fire and made a straight line for the jail in a path that HAD included Khangālanā's now nonexistent wall. Now a dozen more of his officers were down between his office and the jail… none injured seriously… and the heavy metal doors in front of the security wing where the Possible woman had been had simply ceased to exist!

Fortunately for what was left of his troops, the female agent had apparently been far more concerned about the welfare of Possible than exacting any further damage, and according to the terrified Jailer, the Possible girl had left only a few odds and ends to clean up before she herself collapsed. By the time he and the other GJ Agent, Du, had arrived the conscious members of the hit team had all been rendered no longer conscious… although it probably hadn't been much of a task. The thing that left him completely baffled was that none of these men, except for the old untouchable they used as a jailer, was actually one of HIS!

Which did leave him in a bit of an Acāra (a kind of pickle.) Of course, the fact that none of the six guards involved were actually his men gave him some wiggle room. Whatever they'd intended, they clearly planned to blame it on his police, however, so playing the righteous anger card might be the right direction. Clearly, however, whoever it was that wanted Possible had other ways to obtain her besides a corrupt official who was quickly realizing he was swimming in waters too deep for him.

But still… if he could get her into his hospital…

"I think you need to put your weapon down, Mister Du," Khangālanā replied carefully. "The girl needs medical attention. And in any case, there are far more of us than there are of you, and in the end it will be your word against ours."

'_Especially if no one ever hears what you had to say,'_ he added to himself silently. Although, what ever weapon the female agent had used was still unknown… which was why he was BEHIND his officers, not in front of them… she surely couldn't kill all of them first.

"Obviously you're not aware of the wonders of satellite phone technology," a female voice Khangālanā didn't recognize responded out of nowhere. "Monique? I think it's time we pulled this to a close."

With an angry smirk, the dark skinned woman flicked a switch on the green phone on her belt and suddenly a pair of life-sized flickering avatars appeared in the middle of the room. Khangālanā didn't recognize the tall, one-eyed woman, but he DID know the other person… he OUGHT to know his own wife's first cousin.

"Ambassador N'yāya," he gurgled, lowering his head with what he hoped was the correct level of respect.

The man who was his nation's interface with the most powerful nation on Earth looked at him with eyes that could flay flesh from bone.

"Vāhaka."

"I can…" Khangālanā began.

"You can shut up and allow these people to go. Have you forgotten that Miss Possible was declared a national HEROINE just two years ago? By our cousin, the Prime Minister?"

"But.."

"Furthermore, are you aware how many Kālpanikanese criminals are currently serving sentences in Global Justice facilities around the world?

"I…"

"287," N'yāya cut him off. "All of whom, I'm informed, may soon be on their way back to our nation if our existing treaty with Global Justice is declared null."

"B…"

"Not back to our prisons, mind you, simply deposited on our borders. That includes the twenty members of the terrorist group Khuśa Samaya."

Khangālanā remembered the Khuśa Samaya all too well. They'd massacred over half of the royal family in their last attempt to take power. A family to which Khangālanā himself belonged.

What the hell, he'd probably have never got the 10 million dollars anyway. And while the look on N'yāya's face indicated that their mutual cousin was going to be extraordinarily displeased, he'd weathered worse storms thanks to the massive collection of incriminating photographs his officers had obtained for his private files.

"Let them go," He sighed, motioning for his men to drop their own weapons, "I'll draft a formal letter of apology later."

#####

Ambassador N'yāya turned to the tall, one-eyed woman as the remarkably realistic transmitted image faded and she finished speaking to someone named "Wade."

He'd always suspected Doctor Director was as deadly as the organization she headed, but the fact that she'd been able to appear in the middle of the fortified embassy building like a wraith, without setting off a single alarm or attracting the attention of his elite guards was disconcerting proof that his fears had been well founded. Even more alarming than the fact that she had actually done it, however, had been the threats she'd been willing to make.

"I trust that was satisfactory?" He asked nervously.

"It will suffice," the deadly apparition replied. Obviously she would have preferred a more substantial token… Khangālanā's head, perhaps... but the terrifying coldness the woman had radiated earlier was starting to dissipate.

"You wouldn't really have done it, would you?" He asked, after a moment. "Released them all?"

"Be glad you didn't have to find out," Betty Director favored him with a smile that would have done the Grim Reaper proud, then faded into nothingness.

As if she had never been there at all.

####

Kim felt Shego's strong arms placing her in the reclining shock seat of GR ONE. They hadn't had time to install the medical gurneys, she guessed. Now they'd probably have to get new seat covers. She'd seen the blood on Shego's hands and chest and knew where it had to be coming from. Damn messy, headwounds were. Perhaps that was also why she was still feeling so incredibly woozey, but… there was something else that just felt… different.

"Um… Shgo?"

"Yeah Punkin? You're not hurting?"

"Not tha much but… uh…" Kim's eyes traced a path across the other woman's NOT green face. Oh THAT'S what it was! "How'd you…?"

"Oh that," Shego looked at her oddly. "You're just now noticing? Easy trick but a long story." She leaned in confidentially. "Contacts for the eyes and the rest is a furniture stain. Itches like hell, and if it stays on more than 20 hours my skin starts peeling off like a zombie. Anyone without comet healing powers though… probably just take their flesh off."

"Ah. So… it does come off?"

"Yeah, but not while Mister Du is here. I have to burn off the top layers of my skin, and to that I have to be au natural." Shego stopped for a second, thought, and managed to push a grin onto her face. "Unless you'd like to do some experimenting first…?"

Oh God, Kim thought. That was… disturbingly kinky.

"Prfer green." She shook her head as much as she could without sending spaks through her vision. "Not goin' to feel like that for a while anyway. Needle in my ribs and my head's splitting." Kim listened to what she'd just said, "At least m'hearing's coming back… I think… just need rest…"

"Uh uh. Not with a probable concussion. You're staying awake 'til you get to whatever hospital your mom says to send you to, and then going to get a thorough physical when we get back, no matter what Kitten. Your ass belongs to me now and I'm taking no chances. Besides…" And now Shego's smile was almost glowing. "No way are we losing Rescue One's first official rescue."

####

Fortunately, Will Du's training had included basic paramedic skills, although once he'd finished blotting up the dried blood, he'd felt pretty useless for a while, as his responsibilities seemed to consist mainly of simply holding the Kimmunicator at x distance or y distance a z angle while Wade and Dr. Anne Possible conducted remote scans. No wonder Doctor Director had been so excited about the possibility of a technology transfer between Kim's group and Global Justice… the phone sized device seemed to be capable of multiple miracles and it was OLD technology for them.

Eventually, however, his medic training did become useful when they determined what the drug used to knock Kim out had been and what other painkillers could be used once the first dosage's effects began to wear out. Of course Shego could have probably done the same thing, but SHE had to fly the plane… which apparently did have enough fuel to get back.

The good news was that Kim's ruptured eardrum looked to be completely reparable… at least by a state of the art facility. That's why they were heading straight back to Middleton where Dr. Possible was assembling a crack med team. Long term, there were also some tiny bone fragments that could become an issue in a few years if they worked inward, but seemed stable enough for now. Not bad at all, considering that the world had just come within in a few millimeters of losing Kim Possible once and for all. A fraction more and the bullet would have gone into the skull, taking out most of the back along with her brains, instead of the slug mercifully grazing off to impact the wall behind her instead.

Removing the needle from her side had been a bit more of a gruesome task, but Rescue One's med kit had been well stocked enough that the necessary gear was there to do it with minimal discomfort to Kim, who seemed surprisingly cool about the whole thing. Any remaining thoughts Will had had about Kim's qualifications as a field agent had gone out the window when he'd seen the mess she'd made of her attackers… but the dispassionate way she'd watched the crude field surgery that would have been considered torture by most human right's organizations was the final push he'd needed to acknowledge that Doctor Director had been right all along. Granted, the girl… no, young woman… he still had a habit of viewing her as the bubbly teenager he'd first met… was filled with enough medication to make even broken bones a dull presence, but when he'd dressed the long thin, bloody crease next to her left ear, he'd seen that it wouldn't be leaving the first scar on her scalp; and it was no secret that she had more field experience than most Global Justice agents twice her age. What caused someone so young to constantly put their life on the line like that? There'd been a time when he thought it was all about ego, but Kim's attempt to disappear into the woodwork after the calendar broke had given lie to that theory… as for money… Dr. Director had had to practically demand that she accept reward money on some of the missions she'd done for GJ.

No, there was only one possible answer, as humbling as it was. The girl was a Saint, pure and simple. A saint in combat boots, perhaps, and with some nasty skills in the martial arts, but how else to explain her ability to convert the most dangerous woman on the planet into a disciple?

Or for that matter, one cynical GJ agent who'd suddenly realized he'd also become a believer.

####

'_Goddamn that hurt,'_ Kim thought, wincing as she tried to turn her head to watch Shego pilot. She loved watching Shego fly... but then, she loved to watch Shego do anything. The woman was a living poem composed for her eyes, and she could use a little poetry right now.

The strange dreams she'd had while unconscious had left her in an unusually contemplative mood. Both had been uncommonly vivid, with details she couldn't imagine why her imagination had bothered inserting… especially the macabre image of her dead face on a grocery store scandal sheet. Oh, she'd dreamed of dying before… and she occasionally had moments of such strong déjà vu as a result that she'd changed a plan of action at the last instant... but it had always been of the death itself, not the aftermath. Not how it would affect her family… or her love.

Which brought her to the other half of the dream. She knew she'd been falling for Shego at a rate that should have been terrifying, but the details of the wedding had been… perfect. She'd never even looked at a bridal magazine, but she somehow knew that the dress she'd been wearing had been designed by Monique, and they'd spent weeks working with the special fabrics to make…

And that was the thought that stopped her cold.

She'd had a BULLETPROOF wedding dress.

Why would her imagination supply such a detail?

Why?

And then the memory of Shego in the first dream came back. The dead eyes, the lack of any spark where the other dream had show such fire and hope.

It really was an either/or proposition. And the choice was ridiculously easy to make.


	20. Chapter 20

_Sooo… in response to comments on Chapter 19… some people are close, some are way out in left field. I will say that Kim isn't some kind of master of time and space. Check out Betty's own thoughts as a reference on how to interpret, but eventually the answers will be there. We are where Kim is. Again, I'm flattered by all the kind words… especially considering that it's not finished yet. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Yori, Doctor Betty Director, Wade Load, Doctor Anne Possible, the Tweebs, Will Du and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 20

######

Anne Possible came out of the prep area to see the pale figure in scrubs still sitting in the dark corner of the room. The woman had to be exhausted… Will Du had practically collapsed from fatigue as they brought Kim in through Middleton General 's Life-Flight access ramp... but it was obvious that her daughter's… lover... there, she'd said it… intended to be there for the duration.

It had been strange enough to see Shego come in sporting an entirely different skin color, which had somehow vanished after a trip to a visitor's shower… but the almost desperate look on her face, even though Anne had assured her that the operation would be a relatively simple one… had been profoundly moving. Mainly because it was Anne, who was forbidden to actually work on her daughter by the hospital guidelines, who was usually experiencing the same emotions herself. In silence.

And of course, according to Doctor Director, the entire rescue operation, including the three way use of the Shegofone to resolve the issue without greater violence, had been entirely Shego's idea. It had been Anne's own peace-loving daughter who had inflicted the major carnage.

Anne hadn't even known Kim knew how to use a gun. She wondered what else she didn't know. Betty had been rather… enigmatic on that subject.

"You can go see her for a moment," Anne spoke softly, deciding to bend the rules just a bit. "But you'll have to wait out in the lobby, during."

The look of gratitude on Shego's face as she slowly stood and made her way towards the prep room told Anne she'd made the right choice… except…

"Mask," She reminded Shego, handing her the disposable piece of surgical wear. "And you can't touch her or anything on the gurney."

#####

Shego just nodded, acknowledging the depth of her debt. No sense explaining she'd just burned off the entire top layer of her skin and run her hair under the equivalent of a broiler. She was probably a lot cleaner than any of the doctors or nurses but…

There was a time to make waves and this wasn't it.

Entering the clean area, she was shocked to see how small and fragile Kim looked, lying on the one size fits all metal table. It was hard to believe this was the strongest woman she had ever known… and once again she was profoundly grateful that the surgical team hadn't deemed it necessary to shave Kim's head. That would have made this all so much worse. Fortunately Will had done a yeoman's job of treating the exterior wounds and the interior damage would be best treated using a piezo scaler and the new ultrasonic mending tools… with the drawback that Kim would have to be awake and under a local as she went under the not-knife. At least they'd knock her out afterwards.

"Hey," Shego tried to put on the most cheerful and reassuring face she could… forgetting Kim couldn't see it.

"Hey you," Kim smiled back softly. "Coming to rob me?"

"Huh?"

"The mask," The redhead explained, seeing Shego's baffled eyebrows rise in surprise. "Too late anyway. Sure, I recognized her officer. That was the girl who stole my heart."

In spite of herself, Shego chuckled. "God Princess, how can you joke at a time like this?"

"It'll be fine," Kim continued to smile. "It's not my first trip through this operating room, you know." A mischievous grin crept over her face. "In fact, if you could steal me a scalpel, I'll be wanting to add another notch to my lucky wheelchair."

"Steal something AND help vandalize private property?" Shego laughed. "Who's supposed to be cheering up who here?"

But Kim's face was deadly serious as she said; "The fact that you're here at all makes me happier than you can possibly imagine."

It was too much. Shego's limbs felt weak and she ended up leaning against a cabinet to support herself. How could this girl punch her buttons this way?

"Um… was it something I said? Kim asked worriedly, twisting her head as far as it would go in order to keep Shego in view.

"No," Shego admitted. "It's just you. You drive me crazy, you know that?"

"Is that a psychotically crazy or a 'boy those hospital gowns turn me on" kind of crazy? Because if it's the latter, I can get 'em brought in by the gross." Kim winked to cover her own display of nerves. "They're BACKLESS, you know."

"It's a 'I'm going crazy trying to figure you out.'"

"Oh. That." Kim shrugged. "What's to figure? I love you. I hope you love me. End of story."

"No, not end of story. And yes, of course I love you. It fucking scares me how much I care about you… but the whole mission thing…"

That had Kim's full serious attention again. "Go on."

Shego shifted her weight to the small of her back. It was kinda like being in the shrink's office, but vertical. "You know I never had much choice in where my life took me. The comet took care of most of that and then it was just trying to find the options that sucked the least. But you… You really can do anything. And with all those other options open to you… why keep risking your life to save the world? Why do that when you could be… well… normal?"

Kim seemed to give that a long serious thought, and when she finally spoke again, Shego barely heard it. "s'funny."

"What?"

Again, the voice was unusually soft and introspective. "The whole reason I originally started doing the missions was so I could be MORE normal."

"Uh huh… you know that doesn't make a lick of sense, Princess."

Kim shook her head. "Sure it does. You've met my brothers. Are THEY normal?"

"Well…" Shego had a lot of words for the Tweebs but that wasn't one of them.

"Exactly." Kim nodded. "I love them, but they're mutants. They've been kicked ahead in school so many times that they don't really fit in anywhere except with each other. And look at how Wade's turned out. He's barely left his room in years because he's evolved so far beyond other kids his age that they don't even speak the same language, and the people who DO understand him see his body and can't get around the fact that he's a kid."

Shego could only agree mutely. She admired what Wade had achieved, but he was one of the few people she'd ever met who seemed more alienated than her.

Kim not only saw that agreement, she seemed to pull it into herself, her green eyes taking on a softer and more vulnerable expression than Shego had ever seen.

"And I'm not normal either." She sighed. "Never was. Even back in pre-k, I'd figured out I was wired way differently from everyone else. When I'd read a math question that said Sally has twelve eggs and Bob takes two, my mind would get stuck on the question of whether or not Sally had said that Bob could take them… and if not, why Bob needed those eggs so badly that he'd take them anyway. It just seemed to me that learning how to make Sally and Bob work together was every bit as important as was who ended up with how many eggs. Drove my teachers crazy asking ethical questions about Dick and Jane."

"Oookayy…" Shego countered slowly. "I'm not sure I understand that, but it DOES sound like you."

"Right. So every year or so, some teacher would get it in their head that I was being held back and should be kicked ahead a few grades. Or a gym coach would want me to go to some special camp for runners or gymnasts or whatever for a year. But I wanted to learn about PEOPLE, and in my gut, I knew the place to do that was with kids my own age. Don't know why, don't know how, but I did."

A small, almost embarrassed smile crossed Kim's face.

"So I just dug in and refused to let them move me up. Every time they tried I became a total brat, and for years I used Ron as my excuse… I couldn't leave my best friend, right? And he really was my rock in so many ways, because no matter what crazy idea I wanted to try, he'd always be up to giving it a shot. But once I started doing the missions, it was like I'd finally found this perfect excuse for avoiding being pushed into taking senior advanced geometry in my sophomore year, and then it was a way to get out of being pressured into being on the basketball, track AND soccer teams all at the same time. Which they WOULD have done otherwise, because I've never been really good at saying 'no.'"

Shego didn't believe THAT for a second, but now the smile blossomed to become the classic Kim grin. "Of course, the funny thing was that I got to meet more people and experience more of the world with every mission I took, so while the original idea was to hand-pick the handful of things I really wanted to do, and use the missions as an excuse, it turned out that the missions were the things I ended up making the most time for."

"You know, none of that has helped me figure you out at all," Shego scowled, her brows knitted.

"I'm sorry. Did I imply it would? Maybe you should just accept the fact that I'm bat-shit crazy." The redhead gave her own pronouncement a thoughtful pause. "After all, what kind of Princess except a crazy one would keep a Dragon anyway?"

"It's the Dragon who keeps the Princess, Princess."

"Tomato, tomahto. As long as the dragon is waiting to give Sleeping Beauty her wake up kiss, I'm happy."

"That's not how the story goes, you know," Shego protested.

"My fairy tale, my rules," was the impossibly smug response.

"Ahem." Dr. Possible said from the door, two nurses behind her.

"Just be there for me," Kim whispered, and then Shego watched as she was wheeled into the OR.

######

It was interesting to be awake while someone was cutting inside your head, Kim thought. Kind of like being at the dentists, but even more invasive. Especially given the other options they'd decided to employ as long as they were in there. The tiny speaker Wade had developed would remain dead for now, as would the locating chip… but the wires down to the replaceable power source in the hole where a wisdom tooth had once been still needed to be run. At least the way it was configured, she'd have the ability to turn it on and off herself… the idea of someone being able to suddenly speak and eavesdrop inside her own head was still a bit too creepy… but she knew that, eventually, she was going to have to go all the way if she wanted to keep pursuing her present course.

For the moment, though, the Bluetooth link to her Kimmunicator would be enough to adjust to.

The local anesthetic they'd given her was barely even making her drowsy when she finally heard Dr. Chandra announce that the tricky part was finished. She made a loose thumbs up as they asked if everything still felt okay, and then, blessedly, the major drugs kicked in.

She didn't dream at all.

######

And then she was awake.

And a very familiar, if unexpected face was peering down at her. Well, faces, plural actually. Both pink, but one completely naked and the other much larger and topped with a shock of blonde hair

"Hey KP!" Ron grinned as Rufus chimed in with a "Hi!"

"Ron?" Kim blinked groggily. "What are you doing here?"

He looked shocked by the question. "Well, jeez KP, you didn't think I'd be here by your bedside after you fell out of my treehouse, did you? Oh, and I brought today's homework assignment from Mr. Barkin."

"Treehouse!" agreed Rufus! "Ouch!"

"WHAT?" Kim's head almost snapped out of her skull as she attempted to bolt straight up in the bed, but was restrained by Ron's strong hands. Well, those and the half dozen or so canvas straps that still held her mostly immobile.

"Whoa KP!" Ron burst out laughing! Unfortunately, her brain kept moving for a half-second longer and her inner ear went really wonky, but before the world turned to jello, she had enough time to see Shego, the bitch, laughing her fool head off in the background.

"You…" Kim sputtered "B.. b… SHITHEADS!"

"I'm sorry, KP," Ron grinned not very apologetically. "But I couldn't resist. Figured it was better than being all sad and gloomy and 'sorry you got shot in the head,' you know?"

"Here Princess, let's get you propped up," Shego, who WAS having the decency to look a little chagrined, was already by her side, starting to undo the straps and pushing the button that brought the hospital bed into a more chair-like configuration.

By now Kim had calmed down enough to note that there was another person in the room, one who looked as embarrassed as the other two damn well should. She might have known. Yori.

"Okay…" She finally managed to ask after the world stabilized. Theoretically all of the cuts and slices made during the operation should have been instantly healed, but her inner-ear's balance was still a bit off. "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what ARE you doing here?"

"Yori and I were the backup plan," Ron acknowledged the slim Asian girl at last. "If the A team couldn't negotiate your release, we were going to bust you out. But big green here and Du had you back before we'd even crossed the Himalayas, so we caught a flight out of New Delhi to Middleton." He shrugged. "As long as Global Justice was covering the ticket, I figured we could use the flyer miles. See the folks…"

"And you," He added with a soft smile. "I've missed you."

"I missed you too," She admitted. She loved Shego, but having the two of them together was… wonderful. Almost worth taking a bullet at point blank range for, in fact.

"You have my apologies, Kim-san," The Japanese girl finally spoke. "I thought the joke was in… questionable taste, but I was not asked my opinion."

"Hmph!" Shego tried to look indignant.

"Um… thank you, Yori," Kim managed. "You know you don't have to use the honorifics, right?"

"I know," Yori grinned slyly. "And I only accord them where respect is due, Kim-san. This is why Ron is just Ron now."

"Hey!" The blonde boy turned beet red, but his eyes didn't look all that upset at all. In fact…

"So I take it from that that you two finally hooked up, huh?" Kim guessed.

""Um…" Ron attempted to say nothing. "Well…"

"I'm sorry Kim-san," Yori blushed. "How did you…?"

"Three stages of Ron-ness. Stage 1 – God, what a goof. Stage 2 – Oh, the buffoon thing is all an act! Stage 3 – Nope, really a goof after all. Welcome to stage 3."

"Ah. Yes. Thank you." Yori replied cautiously, then adding: "I was told that you and Ron were no longer an item. This was not misinformation supplied by a lecherous gaijin seeking to get into my fuku, was it?"

Kim looked up past Ron to Shego, who answered the question in her eyes with a subtle shake of the head.

"No, you weren't lied to… at least on THAT particular issue. And as for me and Ron…" Kim smiled, giving Shego 'the eye,' " I think we both figured out we were barking up the wrong tree. In fact… there's something a certain dragon owes me that will explain a lot."

Shego actually paled a bit at that, but dutifully stepped forward and leaned in.

It felt odd to be kissing Shego in front of Ron, but if he could screw with HER mind…

"BoooYah!" He cheered, and Rufus was mimicking the move. "So you guys finally figured it out!"

"WHAT?" Kim and Shego blurted as one, incredulous and incredulouser!

"Oh for gosh sakes," Ron grinned, pitching his voice to a falsetto. "Go stop Drakken, Ron, I've got to wrestle with Shego! Defuse the bomb Ron, I'm going after Shego! Drakken and I could have been playing mumblety peg or baking cookies and you'd have never noticed, you were so busy getting your hands all over each other. And the way you looked on the way home after a Shego-fight… no offense, Kim, but you were like a cat in heat!"

"Icky!" Confirmed Rufus, who'd been nodding emphatically the whole time and was now grabbing his own tiny pink breasts in an extraordinarily wrong-sick gesture.

"And you never SAID anything?" Kim looked at her best friend in total disbelief, thankful that at least Shego was also so embarrassed that she was forgetting to laugh at Kim's expense.

"I thought you KNEW!" Ron was totally exasperated. "And then, all of a sudden we were dating and I realized that you DIDN'T know, and what was I supposed to do then?" He gave Shego a mock glare. "Plus she WAS evil at the time! Or said she was. Except she kept saving you. Anyway, I figured you were trying to develop a taste for the other white meat. So, nobly, I made the sacrifice."

"Gah…" Kim's brain was in reboot mode. "So when we broke up…"

"I'd finally realized you were totally and completely, yeah. I'm goofy, not blind." He sighed and looked at her for absolution. "Maybe I should have just told you then, but how would have that have sounded? Hey Kim, the reason we're not clicking… it's not me at all. No, you just like girls. Yeah, THAT would have gone over great."

"And besides," he added with a twinkle in his eye. "There was always the chance you wouldn't have figured it out if things went south with Yori. The Ron-man likes having a sweet piece of honey in reserve."

"You did so not just say that," Kim groaned.

"But I so did," Ron smirked. "So, so much for the OLD news. Is there any NEW news I should know about going on?"


	21. Chapter 21

_And we're back again! I'm glad folks were glad to see Ron's triumphant reentrance to the story, because he's a hoot and a half to write. Hopefully this installment will go out without any problems… FFN was doing some weird hiccupy things all day and it looked either like no one was able to access the story for about 16 hours between midnight Tuesday and this evening, or the traffic counter simply shut itself off. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Yori, Rufus, Doctor Anne Possible, the Tweeb, the wonderful Senor Senior Sr and the less wonderful SSJ and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 21

######

"So how exactly did I end up naked again?" Ron moaned.

"You're not naked Ron!" Monique groaned in response, and the naked mole rat on her shoulder seemed to share her dismay. "You're just not wearing a shirt, and the pants are baggier than you're used to. I had to come up with a costume on the spur of the moment and the Arabian Nights theme popped into my head."

"Yeah… well, it feels pretty naked to me," Ron grumbled, ruffling the wide sash around his waist again. The last time he'd posed for a calendar it had been in a western shirt and hat… an open shirt, true, but he at least understood that look. This looked… well, at least the black Star-trek boots were kinda cool. "And exactly what are we doing this for again?"

"We're testing the focus-tracking system that Jim and Tim developed," Anna repeated, indicating the odd multi-ported device attached between her camera's lens and body. She'd mentioned it in passing before, but she was quickly learning that while Kim's friend had an absolutely stunning physique, his mental focus sometimes seemed to be wandering around in a parking lot on another planet. "We were supposed to do a set of tests with Kim and Shego this afternoon, but the doctors want Kim to stay in bed and under observation for another day."

And rightly so, Anna thought. The girl had actually still planned to come in the day after being shot! Although, in retrospect, that attitude did serve to make Ron's odd mental processes make a little more sense in context. In fact, it was probably a survival mechanism he'd developed while tagging around the world with a girl who didn't seem to know what danger was.

"And you DID ask what you could do to help out while she was grounded," Monique was reminding Ron, the mole-rat mimicking her actions with such surprising speed and skill that it was like a split-second delayed instant replay. "Do you want me to call her and find out who else she'd recommend? It's just going to stress her out more you know."

"NO!" Ron yelped. "No. I'll do it. I just don't understand what you want me to do."

"Well," Anna explained patiently, watching Monique struggle to keep her face calm. "What Kim and Shego want to try is to shoot a couple of sequences while they're fighting… or whatever you want to call what they do these days. So, before we get too invested in the idea, we need to see if the boy's device really tracks quickly and accurately enough that I can depend on it to handle all the focusing. And in order to do that, we need you to do the same kind of thing that they do. A lot of running. Some jumping. And, of course, fighting."

"Fighting?" The color suddenly bleached out of Ron's face. "Oh no, wait… you don't mean… please tell me that Kim didn't set me up to fight SHEGO?"

"No, she had some other business to attend to," Anna smiled as Monique nearly passed out from an acute case of hyper-giggles. "But I think you'll find yourself adequately challenged."

"That's right, GAIJIN," came a snarling voice from behind them. Ron turned and his eyes boggled almost completely out of his head as Yori came in from the designated dressing area where she'd been sequestered with Cyn. The Japanese girl was wearing quite a large amount of black leather, which somehow, still managed to show a LOT more of Yori than Anna had expected the soft spoken girl to be comfortable with.

She should have known better. A girl who hung around with THIS crowd? She feared nothing.

And, although Anna wasn't personally into such things, she had to admit the girl handled her dominatrix gear with suspiciously professional aplomb.

"Prepare to be dominated, Stoppable," Yori grinned evilly as she cracked her whip menacingly at Ron. "And I should warn you, Kim-san was so kind as to explain to me what a 'piece of honey' means in your curious American slang… and I am NOT AMUSED!"

"boo…yah?" gleeped Ron, finally realizing that Kim had perfectly set up her riposte to his Treehouse joke. He was doomed.

"And let the games begin!" Shouted Monique!

"Booyah" Added Rufus, who appeared oddly and completely delighted at this development.

Yes, Anna decided after wards. If what the boys called the "Possible E.N. Focus system" (and what everyone else called the TTD, for Tweeb Tracking Device) could keep up with Ron as Yori ran him around the huge empty area, it ought to be able to keep up with Kim and Shego.

Speaking of which, she wondered how SHEGO'S mission was working out?

#######

"So what do you think?" Shego purred as she rolled back and spread out alluringly across the wide, round bed, her smoldering eyes focused solely on the stunned redhead. "Pretty hot stuff, don't you think?"

"I don't know, Shego…" Anne replied nervously, forcing herself to look at the headboard rather than the attractive young woman splayed out so provocatively over the luxurious red satin sheets. "I'd feel a lot more comfortable with this if Kim…"

"It's fine, Mom, and you're the one who said I couldn't go out," Kim's voice popped in, with only the tiniest hint of electronic distortion. "Shego, try and behave. Furlong's is a nice, respectable store and if you get thrown out, we'll have to get the new spreads and linens at SmartyMart. Now mom, hold the Shegofone up higher so I can see if the bedsheets match my girlfriend."

"Is this really necessary?" Anne whispered to her daughter, who was still half the city away in her hospital bed. Maybe she should have allowed the girls to go out shopping for their bedding… it had only been a little operation… And other shoppers in the store were WATCHING this!

"Um, doy!" Shego pointed out, demonstrating that her hearing was as exceptional as her flexibility. "The furniture we picked out is coming in this evening and I'm NOT putting that grungy old sleeping bag on a $3,000.00 mattress after it's been sitting on that lair-floor."

To Anne's even greater embarrassment, Shego pulled the top of her blouse open quite a bit more than was socially acceptable and lay with the expanse of bared skin next to the expensive fabric. "But as you can see, I kinda clash with certain colors. I know you had your heart set on red, Princess, and I love the feel of this 300 count satin, but doesn't the shade make me look a little muddy?"

"Yeah…." "Yes." Kim and her mother spoke simultaneously.

"And we already nixed the white, so do we go with the black or the green?" Shego smiled, secure in the knowledge that she'd look perfect against either.

"I don't know…" Kim's disembodied voice murmured out loud. "Hey Mom, why don't YOU go sit on the bed with the green ones so we can see how I'll look on them?"

"Kimmie…" Anne wailed. She was now at least 80% sure they were intentionally milking this out just out of spite.

"Well I COULD use the video-projector to screen myself there," Kim supposed. "Of course, I'm wearing a hospital gown with no backside. Do you think Furlong's could ban you for showing your ass if it isn't really… oh stop hyperventilating, Mom, I'm JOKING!"

"Trust me, you'll look good enough to eat on either, Princess," Shego seemed to show a bit of mercy… at least that's what Anne thought until she caught the double entendre, whereupon her gasp left her mouth agape. "But it'll probably be a lot easier to accessorize around the black."

"Okay, black it is," Kim agreed. "And now on to the FUN part! The ceiling mirrors!"

Anne whimpered. This was going to be a really, really long day.

#######l

"Oooo…" Ron moaned softly, this day had SO not gone as he'd thought it would. Every muscle in his body had been worked to within a hairsbreadth of his endurance.

Then a broad grin broke out across his face as he looked at the beautiful young woman curled up next to him. They'd been doing the back and forth dance for almost two months now, neither quite sure of where the other stood on the subject of…

Hmmm… which euphemism would be best? Doing the naughty? Nah… Bumping uglies? No way, there was nothing ugly about Yori and never would be, even when they were both a 103 and wrinkly. No, wait, he had it:

The beast with two backs!

Yes, that summed it up nicely.

He'd always suspected that he'd have some strange bed habits, given the monkey powers that lurked within him, but Yori's sudden discovery of her own… aggressive nature had resulted in something that had probably left the people in the rooms to all sides of his wondering if a murder was occurring.

Well, not in the room just to the left of his. That HAD been Yori's.

But not anymore.

Wow.

As if sensing the pressure of his adoring look upon her, Yori's own chocolate-kissed eyes opened slowly, and the shy smile on her face started Ron's emotions racing again.

"So…" She whispered softly. "It is done."

"No," Ron reached up with his freer hand… the other still being trapped under Yori's lithe and wonderfully limber body… and gently caressed her face. "It's not done. It's just beginning."

The innocent blush that suffused Yori's cheeks was betrayed by the wicked glint that danced in her dazzling gaze. And the small hand that had somehow found it's way around his…

"Ah. It would seem you speak the truth." She sighed. "And I did promise Kim-san to dominate you quite fully. Why must you make my task so… hard?"

"It's only as hard as you want to make it," Ron groaned.

"Indeed," She agreed, indicating that she was prepared for a rather extreme level of difficulty. "It was written long ago that my path and yours were meant to be shared. Sensai told me this shortly after we first met; but for so long I feared that it would be only as an ally."

Her misty orbs were soft and fluid as she worshiped his face with an expression of awe and wonder. "But I had hoped… so hoped… "

Ron's response was merely a soft exhale of pleasure as his own hands began working their own form of monkey magic. And then Yori's own sounds joined his again, as the two who had so longed for each other became one once more.

Next door, sitting in Yori's room where he'd sought refuge from the… excitement… engendered in the aftermath of the photoshoot, Rufus let out a deep sigh of contentment. He'd begun to wonder if his dearest friend would ever find the mate he'd so deserved.

Finally! That task was completed! Which meant…

Rufus clicked on the keyboard of the in-room TV internet device and scanned down the SmartyMart web page.

What luck! A sale on molerats! Now which stores handled the females?

######

"Why are we running so far behind schedule?" Kim Possible snarled. "Can't you get ANYTHING right? What IS the sitch?"

No, Junior amended, bottling in his irritation. Not Kim Possible, Faux-Kim. Except, that as each day passed, the difference between the two seemed to become less and less… Even before the abortive museum snatch two days ago, Bonnie had become totally obsessed with studying tapes of "herself" and comparing how "she" had been to her current… could such a thing even be called a performance anymore?

WHY had he ever let the woman see the rough footage of her lowering herself into the museum? Of course she wasn't as smooth as the real Kim, but she'd really been surprisingly good for someone who'd never actually done it before. Junior remembered the first time Shego had shown him the correct way to rappel and what a mess he'd made of it. Faux-Kim had done so much better, but on seeing how sloppy it had looked on the video, she'd immediately insisted on going to one of his father's warehouses and practicing over and over. At least he'd made a little lemonade from the yellow lemons by stealthily putting up a green cloth and surveillance camera so that footage of her practicing could be keyed over different backgrounds, but the more often he let her roam outside his secret lair, the more likely it became that she… and his entire plan… would be discovered.

He should have just forbid it, but her increasing "Kim-ness" was making it harder and harder to steer her thoughts in the direction he wanted. Worse, she was starting to get… confrontational.

And unfortunately, the truth was that things WERE running behind schedule. WAY behind schedule. Especially when it came to pulling together the next phase of the operation. It had been bad enough that Junior had lost most of second unit team he had hired in Kālpanika, but those had at least been local thugs who had no idea who was hiring them. What he'd never anticipated was that, after finding out what had happened to those thugs in the debacle, several members of his main unit had also quietly slipped away into the night. And they'd had the nerve to do it AFTER cashing their pay vouchers!

Okay, they were actually money orders he bought from the convenience store on the next island. He'd never paid much attention to his father's lectures on how to launder money. Eventually his father was going to wonder about the charges on his account, but given that Junior often spent €30,000 on clothing in a single month, he could probably slip it by as long as he… sigh… resisted buying new shoes for the next month or so. The aggravating thing is that he knew he'd have no problems at all if he could just use regular Henchco employees… but that would be giving everything away. If there was one thing he was sure of, Jack Hench would sell Junior's skin in a second if he thought it would curry favor with Global Justice.

"I'm going stir-crazy, Junior," 'Kim' was still complaining. "Can't I go steal back at least ONE more statue or something?"

"I am sorry Kim," he told his faux-Kim with a smile that proved what a marvelous actor he would be when he finally got his chance. She didn't suspect at all how, in his mind, she was being hung upside down over a charcoal grill as he prepared to flay her alive. "But we should have another attempt ready to go in…. um… soon. Can you not practice the ropes some more?"

"I'm sick of that," 'Kim' muttered. "And if my climbing skills have been so badly affected by what they did to me, what about the rest of them? I need to get some PROFESSIONAL assistance."

Junior flinched. He'd tried offering Bon-Kim his advice on the mountain climbing gear and found he had forgotten some important things. Fortunately one of his grips had some experience and had offered to give 'Kim' some pointers… for an extra fee, of course. But he had to keep her mind occupied and off thinking about the general strangeness of his plan and her situation. For just a little longer, anyway…

"What do you want to practice now?" Junior sighed. He was either going to have to make another credit card charge, or e-bay his prized collection of designer spats… but the payoff would be worth it.

"Krav Maga!" The girl who wasn't Kim Possible smiled with a frighteningly familiar grin. "Please and thank you."

#######l

Senor Senior Senior stopped and looked at his computer screen again. Yes, the amounts of the unexplained charges he'd just noted on his Plutonium card were a perfect match for the amounts that that had been automatically drafted from his checking account. But what had he bought to incur such charges? The problem with the Plutonium card, specifically designed for supervillains, was that all transactions made on it were ALMOST untraceable. The identity of the parties to both sides of every transaction, going in and out, was only actually available for a period of 12 hours, and then, like clockwork, the account rewrote itself, completely wiped the media on which it was stored, wiped the media again, and then rewrote itself again, before starting anew. It was a great benefit for those who were intent on great evil… or so the people at the Friendly, Friendly Bank and Trust had assured him… but unfortunately, while it made it very difficult for someone ELSE to trace what you were doing, it was quite inconvenient when you couldn't remember what you had spent the money on. And like many older men, Senor Senior Sr. had a great fear of memory loss. At his age, all he had were his memories. Well, those and a few hundred billion dollars and a son who might someday not be a total disgrace. Maybe.

Wait. His son. He vaguely remembered getting an application to put Junior down for a secondary account under his… yes, last Christmas.

And at that exact second, a charge suddenly appeared on the screen. It was Junior's account all right, and it was billed to… SlimDandy's Snack and Pack? Ah, yes. The convenience store that made the horrid blueberry slushy drinks to which Junior was so addicted. SSS had tried one once and not only had it tasted more like window cleaner than fresh blueberries, it had turned his tongue, teeth and expensive dental implants a disgusting shade of teal that had taken a week of brushing to remove.

And then Senor Senior looked at the total amount of the charge.

€60,000

Senor Senior's bushy white brows rose in surprise. THAT was an awful lot of blueberry slushies.


	22. Chapter 22

_As previously noted, I'm in the middle of an international trip so posting's slowed down a bit, but I managed to draft this out despite a nasty case of "airplane sickness." But I had a nice surprise on landing… while in the air, ATCOTS crossed the 25,000 hit and 8,000 visitor marks. Thanks to all who've given this odd little yarn a shot, and especially, thanks for the continued reviews… they are greatly appreciated. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Doctor Anne Possible, Will Du and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 22

######

Kim stared up through half-lidded eyes and drank in the glory of the image before her. Even after spending half of her first night back from the hospital 'catching up' in a breathtaking variety of physical fashions, her fascination with her chosen partner only continued to grow. Or, she admitted, to further reveal itself, given that if what Ron said was true, she'd been 'noticing' for a lot longer than she'd thought.

Kim had always wondered about the universal fascination with the female nude in art… those questions having only increased after becoming a noted object of said subject herself… but looking at Shego's magnificent body from this distance, it was obvious why it was a such a ubiquitous theme. Even among those who professed no carnal interest, a lack of bias Kim could admittedly no longer claim, it was now almost impossible to ignore how the graceful lines and the subtle play of color and shadow seemed to be designed to inevitably draw in the eye and focus attention in a series of fascinating paths… how the nipples pulled focus across to the apex of the breasts, the dark black patch of pubic hair a not so subtle arrow directing attention to the wonderful core of her sex…

"You're looking at me again, aren't you?" The object of her consideration murmured in amusement, her exquisite form as still as a jade statue as she spoke… if Kim hadn't already been looking, she wasn't sure if she'd have even seen the lips Kim had spent so much time kissing moving at all.

"Mmm hmm… How could you tell?"

"'Cause I've been looking at you too, obviously."

"Really?" Kim felt the blush expand across her entire body, but it was as much from pleasure as from embarrassment at being 'caught.' Being just as naked and exposed atop the well broken in sheets as Shego was no longer so the drama; but knowing that Shego apparently still found her smaller and less developed body of interest, was. "I couldn't tell you were looking at all… you're good at that."

"Corner of my eyes, love," And now that she said it, Kim could see the glimmer of amusement twinkling from between the dark, lustrous lashes. "It's something I've practiced. A lot."

That could be interpreted as "when I was a thief" or "looking at you"… or both. And Kim realized that unless she asked specifically, she'd never know. But she didn't really need to know, and that enigmatic mystery was part of what she found so fascinating about Shego… this person who was at once so like and so completely opposite herself. It wasn't about what secrets they might still intentionally hold, but about the fact that they were still fundamentally unique, that there would always be new surprises and would never become copies of the other.

But the fact that they'd BOTH been looking…

"Soooo… What do you think of it?" 'It' being the huge ceiling mirror that floated 15 feet above them on the vaulted ceiling of the bedroom of their new quarters.

"Definitely the best view I've ever had from a room in my life. More than makes up for that fact that we don't have a window."

"Yeah… " Kim beamed. "I really only said we should look at these to see if we could get my mom to accelerate my discharge, but now that it's in… I'm so glad we bought it."

"Oh, were we talking about the mirror?" Shego subtly adjusted herself and now she was looking at Kim directly, the soft smirk on her face offset by the velvet tone of her words. "I thought it was the new 'no-clothes on Possible in the living quarters' policy. Which I heartily endorse."

"Do you?" Kim closed the distance between them. "Smart ass."

"Yes, as a matter of a fact it does," Shego gave her a little mock-scowl, rubbing said area for emphasis. "Who knew you'd be such a biter?"

"Who knew you'd taste so good…?" Kim's guilty canines briefly peeked bashfully from behind her concealing smile. The truth was that it rather surprised her too. The odd mix of sex and fighting that had characterized their first encounters continued to be the rule rather than the exception, with the result that most sparring sessions tended to turn into something else entirely… although this one had started with, of all things, a game of Twister. All of which made it a damn good thing that the six rooms they'd chosen as "theirs" (and which Shego had subsequently knocked out walls to reduce to a count of two "big" living areas and two private offices) were conveniently adjacent to the workout rooms as well as across the hall from the communal kitchen for rapid protein and carbo-reloading. It was also very useful that Shego healed so fast that she wasn't a constant display of hickies… and that Kim's dragon, who was more of a scratcher, took a bit more care in marking Kim in places that were less likely to be noticed. Not that THAT was much of a secret after the backless hospital gown. And come swimsuit season…

MMmm. Now that brought up some thoughts about avoiding the issue entirely with private beaches and...

"Oh God," Shego's soft tones affected an attitude of perhaps not completely simulated dread as she saw a familiar smile start to form. "I don't know what you're thinking of Possible, but have mercy. Haven't we established that you're always going to take me when it comes to endurance?"

"My mind hadn't even begun to think about taking you," Kim protested, belying that statement by starting to slip slowly downwards until her head was even with Shego's nipples, one of which inexplicably became caught... delicately... between her teeth.

"Until now," She added evilly, enunciating carefully around her 'prisoner.' "Sure you don't want to try again?"

"1 – no, I'm too tired to have any control," Shego yawned. "And 2 – no, 'cause you're a damn pervert."

"I prefer to think of it as willing to experiment… but I suppose I can compromise on kinky."

"How generous of you."

"Uh huh." Kim continued to tease, both verbally and with a few deft flicks of her tongue against the trapped nub. "And really, if you could manage it, think of the practical applications!"

Shego's brows danced in disbelief… and maybe a little in reaction to the applied stimuli. "Like what? Ruining more shirts than I already do? Or giving you lip burns we'll have to explain? You like playing with fire way too much already…"

"Says who?"

"Your mom."

"My Mom?" There was something rather unsettling about saying that name while you had another woman's nipple in your mouth. If that had been Shego's intent, it worked, as Kim released the already stiffening appendage. "You didn't tell my Mom…?

"About that, no," Shego confirmed to her relief. "But we did have a nice long talk while you were in surgery. You remember that, don't you? Right after you'd given yourself a little case of bullet to the head? Turns out we did quite a bit of female bonding while you snored your head off."

"Oh." Kim HAD noted a definite warming in the Mom/Shego dynamic, but hadn't really thought about the probable cause. "You didn't… tell her about the hate sites, did you…?"

"No." Shego shook her head. "I figured she had enough things to worry about, especially after she passed the top of her list along to me."

Shego paused to let that sink in, then continued. "I had no idea you'd been in the hospital so many times. You're lucky your mom's on the staff there and they all think of you as a second daughter, 'cause there's no insurance plan on the planet that would cover you. You have to have broken Evil Knieval's record three times over."

"You're exaggerating." Kim retorted. "I mean, yeah, I get injured, but most of them aren't major injuries. Broken ribs, fingers..."

"Most people consider a broken rib major, Princess," Shego fired back after a frustrated sigh. "They don't just tape them up and go right back to doing the same thing that broke them. And that was your second major skull trauma. And then there were the fractured arms, the torn tendons, the burns, sprains, infections, snake bites… even poison gas once, for the love of God.

"I just barely got a whiff of that and it was years out of date." Kim knew that was a weak excuse even before she said it.

"Doy! You'd be dead if it had been any fresher." Shego's tone was louder now, though still tempered by the underlying concern. "And yes, I know most of that was back when you were starting out, that you're a lot more careful now… but you're not immoral Kim. Even if you're only just now starting to get it, your parents have known that for a long time. I'm not sure if you really understand how much they must love you, to let you be you, knowing what could happen."

"Exactly… where is this going?" Kim asked uncertainly.

"To the fact that you've added another person to the list of people who care about you. One who doesn't want to ever be in the position you've put them in again, waiting for the day you come home in a body bag." Shego's eyes were dark and stormy. "I'm serious Kim. From now on, if you're going on a mission, I'm going on the mission. We're joined at the hip. And if you ever start to do something too crazy, your mother has given me full and explicit permission to drag you back home by whatever means necessary and chain you to a bed."

Kim blinked at the emotion behind her lover's words. And the visual image. "Um… I think I'd resent that but…"

"But?"

"It's kind of a turn on." Kim grinned.

"Why should I have known that was coming?" Shego groaned. "I'm beginning to think making soup and clipping my toenails are turn ons to you."

"Oooo, toenails," Kim giggled. "Probably not the time to go into some weird thoughts I was having about spanking, huh?"

"Spanking?" Shego's eyebrows pole-vaulted into her hairline.

"Oh, you think it sounds like fun too?" Kim purred.

"That's with a question mark, not an exclamation and…" The pale woman started before realizing she was fighting another losing battle. "Oh never mind… just let me get some sleep and if you're good I'll think about it in the morning you damn sex addict…"

'_A sex addict who's got you wrapped around her little finger' _Kim gloated as the ex-villain snuggled her back towards her and they assumed the spooning position they usually ended up in.

Even that looked perfect in the mirror, Kim noted with pleasure. They didn't just look good together. They looked like a perfectly meshing set.

It was just too bad Anna couldn't take a shot of them like this.

Or could she?

Would she?

Would Shego…?

Good gravy Possible, what are you thinking?

She was wondering if she should even begin to consider the slightest possibility of mentioning it during the shoot when…

And the words "The Shoot" suddenly set off a flare inside her mind.

Oh hell, that was today. No, looking at the clock it was NOW!

"The Photoshoot!" She blurted, leaping out of the bed!

"What? Now? It's only…" Shego peered at the uber-fancy clock radio with so many functions that it was hard to figure out what the actual time was. Then her eyes made it out. "Oh crap!"

Kim was already fumbling into the pants half of the new pair of flannel pajamas she'd meant to eventually put on. When she went to get breakfast, anyway.

"Okay, I'll let them in and run interference. You get yourself fixed up really nice and as soon as you're ready, I'll come back and spruce up."

"Sounds like a plan," Shego nodded, making a bee-line for her side of the Hollywood style bath, but Kim was already out the door.

######

"…sure they must be here someplace," Cyn was saying, as she hefted in the third bag of camera gear.

"Unless a mission came up," Anna agreed. She and Cyn had been waiting in the elevator entrance area for a few minutes already, but the question as to what to do now became mute as Kim appeared from around a corner, still buttoning up the top of her PJs.

"Uh sorry," The redhead smiled, "We overslept."

Anna and Cyn exchanged knowing looks. Years of working in tandem with the fashion industry had given them a healthy knowledge of fabrics, and clothes that had been slept in didn't still have the factory-fresh creases that Kim's pajamas were displaying. Whatever they'd been up to, 'sleep' probably had not been the major focus of the event.

It was actually rather cute, Anna mused. And the bed-head that Kim was currently sporting did indicate that they'd at least been in the vicinity of the sleeping fixture.

"If you'll give me just a minute," Kim was saying. "I can get some coffee and tea started in the kitchen. There are some bagels too, but trust me, you'll want to cook your own."

"Uh… I can handle all that," Cyn interjected, for which Anna was eternally grateful. Kim might be able to make coffee without burning it, but whether or not it would be drinkable was still a crapshoot. Tea… who knew what was Possible.

"Okay," Kim nodded in embarrassment as the blonde disappeared in the direction of the kitchen. "Shego will be out in a few minutes and then I'll get ready. Monique's supposed to be here too, isn't she?"

"She called and said she'd be running about twenty minutes late. Last minute costume redesigns."

"Ummm." Kim grunted thoughtfully. She'd thought the first draft of these sets was revealing and who knows what the fashion diva might have added now?

Then again, what had she been thinking about earlier? The knowledge that she and Shego had full approval on what went out had eliminated much of her own anxiety, and seeing how good she really looked against Shego…

"Do you need to start setting up the lights?"

Anna shook her head. "They're pretty much all set, actually. What we used for Ron's shoot was what we'd planned for today and those shots came out… quite well. And with everything on the computerized control board, any minor adjustments we need to make will be done on the fly."

"On the other hand," Anna added delicately. "We should probably pick up some of these other… things lying around.

Oh yeah, Kim thought. She'd forgotten about what they'd left set up in the middle of the floor.

"Do I even want to know why this is here?" Anna added as she eyed the spread out Twister set.

"So Princess can discover new ways to cheat," Shego muttered as she walked up, still pulling a comb through her hair.

"I wasn't cheating," Kim protested even as her inner Cave-Kim was thinking about how hot the green woman looked.

"Right hand green means the green dot on the floor, Princess."

"Um… " Kim declined further argument. She actually had quite a few clever rejoinders to that, but none that were fit for Anna's ears. Still, she couldn't let Shego top her in the quip category.

"Okay, Anna, I'm going to get cleaned up real quick." She was already a good twenty feet away and accelerating when she threw out the conversation bomb. " Shego, do you want to talk to her about that spanking idea?"

'_So worth it, even if I couldn't see her face,'_ Kim chortled, peeling off her clothes as she scooted down the hall, but the amusement died when she re-entered the bedroom.

BOTH the Kimmunicator and the Shegofone were emitting the loud, whooping sounds they'd decided to use for Global Rescue emergencies. What the hell? Global Rescue was still weeks away from being an operating entity.

That meant something bad. REALLY bad.

With a stifled curse, Kim vaulted across the room and grabbed her own frantically beeping device, hitting receive with a well practiced motion.

She wasn't prepared for what she saw.

Will Du. Doctor Director. And Wade. All on separate mini-screens. And all looking VERY worried.

"What's the sitch?" She demanded, realizing the photoshoot was probably going to be delayed again.

"It's a big one/Major Situation/We need to know…" came the babble of three voices simultaneously. Fortunately Wade must have been on top of it and muted the other two somehow… because they all came to an abrupt halt.

And that's when Kim remembered that she'd been quite naked when she'd picked up the phone, and though she'd automatically turned it up to show only her body from the shoulders up… she'd forgotten that there was now a large mirror directly above her.

Not important right now.

"Sorry," Kim adjusted her position and maintained her composure and chose the person least likely to be flustered. "Again, what's the sitch? Doctor, you first."

"Uh… sorry Kim," Betty restarted. "There's a situation going on and we think Global Rescue may be the only viable option."

"Go on." Kim was all business now.

"How much do you know about volcanoes?"


	23. Chapter 23

_And here comes the action again. Is there anything about the KP universe that isn't fun to write about? Okay, _Senor Senior Senior's Anti-Constipation Workout for People of Distinguished Age and Irregular Bowel Function_ might not be so dazzling… although given some of the fics I've seen, someone might already be writing it. As a side note, I've used Vulcanologist as opposed to the equally valid Volcanologist because I don't think the old Greek and Roman Gods get enough air time these days. More Anderson references slide in… my nom de plume IS SHADO Commander, after all… but I DID resist the urge to note that the focus of the video attention listed below was Mirrors 2. Thanks again for the notes and reviews and there will be something special coming for those of you who've taken the time to write, with an extra thanks to Mad Possum, who's apparently been promoted to Herald. Finally, yes, Ffordesoon, I really am turning it out at this pace just to annoy you. Why else would I be posting this at 4 in the morning, Tokyo time? Jet lag… nah! __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Yori, Rufus, Will Du, Jim and Tim Possible aka the Tweebs, Doctor Director, Doctor James Possible and even Wade's Mom are borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe created by Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Anna and Cyn are both consenting adults though they deny any relationship, and are free for use elsewhere. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 23

#######

Almost as far from any other hunk of land as was physically possible, the foreboding pair of volcanic outcroppings collectively known as Māhanga Puia jutted from the middle of the South Pacific like twin daggers. Alternately belching fire, with ecosystems that consisted primarily of scrubby ferns, a few breeds of amazingly tenacious palms and a handful of stunted seabirds who were apparently either too feeble or too lazy to attempt to fly to more accommodating climes, they had been largely ignored by humans since their initial discovery. Of that, what was known was that approximately a thousand years ago, some incredibly adventuresome (some said drunk and lost) Polynesian explorers had ventured onto its shores, spending a few days surveying the dual islands' frightening collection of un-scalable cliffs, knife-edged rocks and ash-sand beaches. Noting the complete lack of such basic necessities of life as fresh drinking water and the generally foul odor of what would one day come to be known as VOG, the explorers promptly passed judgment on the whole enchilada as "tino kino," which roughly translates as "this sucks," bestowed the name that literally means Twin Volcanoes, then paddled away, leaving the sub-islands of Māhanga Rahi and Māhanga Riri in the relative obscurity in which they had dwelled until their recent rediscovery by the scientific community.

However, with the integration of advanced satellite mapping and analysis technologies into the relatively young science of Vulcanology, the long lost islands had suddenly leaped back into the interest of, if not the general public, at least the academic community. The primary reason for this was that, as nature is so often wont to do, the two islands seemed to spit in the face of accepted scientific wisdom, being two entirely different types of active volcanoes located within, well, spitting distance of each other. The far larger and much more active Māhanga Rahi (Great Twin) was a classic shield volcano, one that was almost constantly in some state of eruption, but whose pattern of magmic extrusion were of the less explosive type referred to as Hawaiian. As with the type's namesakes, this meant that Rahi's ejaculations of lava were primarily liquid ejections of molten magma that flowed down the eastern side of the island, slowly building a shield of rock that might eventually connect the two islands assuming the second volcano decided to be on speaking terms. Unfortunately, working against that notion was the fact that Māhanga Riri (Angry Twin) to the east was a strato-volcano, one given to Plinian eruptions of pyroclastic clouds of volcanic rock and ash and noxious gases… lahars… of such as lovely items as sulfuric acid in aerosol form. Although erupting far less often than its twin, Riri's wrath was far more deadly, as its sister volcanoes Pinatubo and Vesuvius were often wont to prove. The big problem was that, according to all current wisdom, two such dissimilar volcanoes should never be so closely spaced together. It just didn't make sense unless all the years of research accumulated to date was missing something very important or the Gods had just decided that they were angry and wanted a virgin (toasty, hold the cheese.)

Faced with such a scientific inexplicability, the vulcanologists of the world frothed, vented and gnashed their collective teeth, attempted to revise their theories and formulas and ultimately declared that the only solution to the conundrum the Twins posed would be the establishment of a major research center on the islands. Called Volcanolab, and staffed by a combination of rabid volcano watchers, dry academics and unwitting geology students who hadn't read closely enough after seeing the words South Pacific island on the list of possible locations to intern at, it was actually composed of three separate sections. A small landing field and naval dock on the west side of Rahi allowed regular resupply of equipment and stores, while an advanced research facility on Rahi's eastern side and a smaller facility on the western shore of Riri were the actual centers of study. Built to almost ridiculous standards that would hopefully even survive a full scale Vesuvian pyroclastic flow should Riri get in a mood, they were essentially self enclosed, heat resistant, non-moving submarines cum buildings with internal air storage and purification systems that would allow the cowering researchers within to outlast the worst of any volcanic storm.

To which, of course, Māhanga Puia had just once again proven that the scientists didn't know diddly. Because Māhanga Rahi was a fake. While its physical size was technically larger than that of Riri's, its mass was far less than anyone had ever expected due to the presence of a large air bubble buried way down towards the base of the island… a bubble large enough to swallow a half dozen city blocks and still have room left for Godzilla. For untold ages it had remained completely airtight, but years of erosion by the sea on one side and geothermic fracturing on the other had recently allowed sea-water to begin seeping into that bubble; and as the massive chamber filled, the structural integrity of the island itself had begun to come into question.

In geologic terms, this was called seriously bad shit...

Approximately three to four hours before Kim had received her urgent call, the final drop that broke the Camel's back seeped through and the entire western side of Māhanga Rahi suddenly said "to hell with this" and began a mad collapse into the ocean. This took with it the airfield and the naval docks, though incredibly without any loss of human life, a miracle that occurred primarily because a new supply of videos had just come in and everyone was at the Rahi station community center fighting over the latest releases. Unfortunately, Rahi wasn't done with its dissolution, and as the rocks continued to shift, the EASTERN side of the island also began to drop, causing the volcanic dam that had been holding back a huge lake of lava to collapse, forming an epic 'pahoehoe,' or lava fall, that would have no doubt delighted the research team had they not been directly in the path of it. Fortunately… and it is rather pushing the definition of 'fortunate' in light of their situation… prior to the arrival of the lava itself, the AVALANCHE of volcanic rock and debris from lower on Rahi's slopes had first buried the main Volcanolab facility under an insulating cushion of more solid but less heated material.

The good news, as it was, was that everyone again miraculously survived, and the insulating rock kept MOST of the lava away from the surface of the buildings. Some of the outlying portions of the lab WERE crushed, destroyed or vaporized by magma leaking through, but the systems had been designed with that possibility and by this point everyone had managed to move to the central Ultimate Safety Area. In addition, while the satellite communications systems on the surface were immediately destroyed, the hard cables that ran to the facility on Riri remained intact for several hours, allowing the trapped researchers to send word of their survival to the outside world.

The BAD news, and there was still quite a lot of it to come, began with the fact that the new flow of lava from Rahi's crater had, after deciding to pass almost directly over the buried Volcanolab, become a regular channel that showed no signs of slowing. It might be weeks… even months… before the turgid river of molten rock slowed and became cool enough to attempt digging down through it. That coupled unfavorably with the fact that one of the areas that Volcanolab HAD lost was the main supply storage. While the USA (and yes, the French members of the international team of researchers at the base hated the acronym) did have emergency backups, it was nowhere near enough for the combined staffs of the fields and the lab to last that long. On the other hand, the air and water probably WOULD hold out, and the older and wiser members of the staff were already beginning to consider which of the interns to invite to a Donner Party.

Oh, and then the REALLY bad news was that Riri was apparently feeling a bit left out and had begun to rumble ominously. Although that island seemed stable at the moment, there was now the possibility that it could suddenly eject enough rock, ash and superheated gas to flash-fry any attempted rescue based from the no longer lesser twin's tiny helipad and boat dock.

It seemed like an impossible situation.

Or, as Doctor Director had immediately determined when she began to monitor the first desperate calls for assistance, a Kim-Possible situation.

#######

"SHEGO!"

Shego didn't need to know something was wrong by the tone in Kim's voice. The fact that the redhead was running towards her almost completely naked… the heroic streaker HAD found time to pull on a pair of underwear… with her mission uniform under one arm and her Kimmunicator in the other, was more than enough indication that something serious was going down.

"You might want to hold off on setting up those cameras, Cyn," Shego told the photographer's assistant standing next to her.

"Catch!" Kim yelled, tossing the Shegofone, which had been in the hand on the clothes arm, to its namesake. "You need to talk to Will about Rescue One. Stat!"

"Trouble?" Anna worried, barely having caught up to speed while Shego had already launched into a complex technical discussion.

"Big time," Kim confirmed, finally having time to start pulling on the rest of her clothing. "I'm really sorry Anna but…"

"It's what you do," Anna didn't let her finish. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

######

Thirty minutes later, Anna was wondering if she'd gone insane as she watched Shego and Kim manhandle one of Drakken's old hovercraft into the cargo bay of Global Rescue One, a vehicle that looked less like a plane than some kind of mechanical raptor.

"Are you sure about this boss?" Cyn asked from her position inside the passenger section of the cabin.

"It's been a while since I did any stringer work for the newsfeeds," Anna admitted, perhaps attempting to convince herself as much as her assistant, "But I've got a hunch the video from this is going to be a really hot commodity."

"Hot. Volcano. Such a kidder you are," Cyn snorted.

"You can still back out," Anna scowled.

"No, you're right," Cyn admitted picking up the manual for their dSLR for a quick refresher course. Like most state of the art models, it doubled as a High Definition video camera, but the only time it had ever actually been used as such was for a 'personal' project of Cyn's that Anna hopefully would never know anything about. It wouldn't do to look TOO familiar with the functions while she assumed the role of second camera operator when they weren't actually doing what they could to assist. "And as stripped down and scratch built as this team is going to be, they'll probably need every hand they can get."

######

Kim felt the hovercraft finally snap into its secured position in the back of the Orb… Rescue One. "It's in!" She told Shego, who apparently hadn't heard the restraining locks click and was still pushing on her side. The GJ tunnel digger they'd been using for lair mods was already secured to a bulkhead with restraining straps, along with every spare med kit they'd had a the lair. Will Du was en route from the warehouse Kim and Wade had used for years as an equipment depot with the additional medical supplies, the climbing gear, gas masks and whatever else Wade had been able to pull together, in addition to the extra heat resistant suits and a second tunnel digger from GJ stores. That left the last remaining members of the team….

"KP!" And there was Ron, sprinting across the tarmac with Yori at his side and Rufus in his pocket. Both humans clutched bags of groceries in their arms as well as some smaller, suspiciously familiar bags. Shego would have a fit, but she should have realized that putting Ron in charge of food would mean breakfast would come courtesy of Bueno Nacho. And after several days of hospital food, Kim was REALLY jonesing for a naco.

"Where should we put these, Kim-san?" Yori asked as they came up the ramp. The Japanese girl was affecting a look that Kim would best describe as 'rumpled,' wearing a pair of jogging shorts Kim recognized as being Ron's, a light blue t-shirt that appeared to have been painted on with the words "Sex Wax" written in fluorescent pink across her chest, and purple and green sneakers with no socks. Of more importance mission-wise, she was also wearing a black backpack to which her Ninjaken was strapped. Kim had no idea how the girl's ninja gear might be of use to the mission, but it would have been foolish not to take advantage of a potential asset.

Ron, she noted, was wearing the pants and boots from his old mission uniform but had substituted an extraordinarily loud orange Hawaiian shirt that was covered with red and yellow monkeys for the top. Kim still wondered if it was a statement or a joke. One of the small but bright lights that had occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Lowardian invasion was that it had left Ron finally free of the extreme aversion to all things simian that had possessed him ever since a nightmarish summer at Camp Wannaweep in the company of the crazed chimp Bobo. Unfortunately, he'd now swung in the opposite direction and tended to gravitate towards 'monkey' themed items, no matter how garish, and even worse, bananas. There was one pair of underwear that…

But THAT, she thought smugly, that was Yori's problem now. Any questions about whether the two had become intimate yet had been answered when a bleary eyed Yori had answered Ron's Kimmunicator with what Kim could now recognize as an "I've been thoroughly fucked, but in a good way" face as the co-leader of Global Rescue pulled together her ad-hoc team.

"There are storage bins up at the front," Kim told the nubile and braless ninja. "The MRE's and staples are already in there, so just get it secured and we'll worry about getting it all sorted out once we're airborne."

"Hai, Kim-san," Yori replied and headed towards the still only partially built mini-galley, her svelte hips swaying with a motion that Kim had started to notice in her own step these days. Oh yes, the girl was definitely…

"What a sweet ride!" Ron exclaimed appreciatively. Having set down his own bags and released Rufus to go help Yori, he was openly admiring the interior of the ship. "And she's really all yours?"

"She's all Shego's," Kim corrected, "Although she's been leased to Global Rescue for a five year period for an extremely reasonable rate. But yeah, the days of trying to beg a ride are over. As a girl gets older, she starts to appreciate a little security."

"Among other things," Ron winked. "So where is Miss Green and Bonking my Best Friend?"

"Apparently still able to sneak up on you, despite your great monkey powers," Shego replied, having stepped out from the inside of the hovercraft where she'd been completely taking down all of the systems. What would happen if a contra-grav field was accidentally activated inside a vehicle moving at Mach 7+ was something no one wanted to test quite yet. That was one of the major design challenges the Tweebs and Wade would have to face with the construction of Global Rescue Two.

"Eh, it still comes and goes," Ron shrugged. "Not something I've needed to practice much while in school. Although I HAVE discovered that I get a really weird tingle every time one of my soufflés is about to fall."

"Uh huh. And on that subject, I see the great chef has brought his favorite poison for the communal breakfast," Shego nodded at the Bueno Nacho bags, then slid Kim a considering eye. "You may have one, repeat, one breakfast naco. Do we have an updated ETA on Du, yet?"

"Any minute now," Kim promised. "We'll be ready to go before you finish your pre-flights."

"I don't know about that. There are some things I still do quickly, Princess," The green woman leered, started to stalk towards the still open to the main cabin cockpit area, then paused, turned back and added "And just because I said one breakfast naco does not mean you can have as many morning burritos as you want on the side. We're getting your sodium intake under control, and after this, the only breakfast tacos you're getting are mine."

"Wow. She's really serious about you!" Ron shook his head in such wonderment that he didn't even consider touching the taco comment. "I still can't believe we're about to do a mission with Shego AND Will Du,"

"Yeah, well about that," Kim began, trying to take her mind off both said comment and how sexy Shego's ass looked beneath her trademark catsuit. "Try not to give Will too hard a time. He's a bit of a stick in the mud, but as the only "official" GJ rep on board, he'll be our best interface with the lab staff and whatever other teams manage to make it in."

"Manage? That sounds ominous."

"It's complex. We'll have a full briefing as soon as we get underway, but for now, get those groceries stowed and… she didn't say anything about the sunrise queso chips, did she?"

"Nope."

"Hide me two."

######

Will arrived just moments later in a GJ van stuffed to the gills with rescue paraphernalia and all free hands (except Rufus, who probably would have got squished in the shuffle,) made quick work of loading everything on board. There was one awkward moment when Kim introduced Anna and Cyn.

"If I'd known we had the space, I could have brought in some more agents," Will commented sourly.

"Yes, he's always this lovable," Kim confirmed to the two women, before turning back to Will. "Will, for the duration of this mission, Anna and Cyn will be representing the fourth estate. A new organization like Global Rescue needs to be judged on the merit of its actions, and as such, documentation of this mission may prove invaluable in establishing our future credibility."

"Ah…" Will goggled, but nodded acceptance. PR was something he'd never been particularly good at, so he conceded the point. "Understood. I'm sorry ladies. Ms. Possible is, of course, correct. You have my apologies."

Not used to such things as apologizing to _civilians_, Will flushed and stepped away to return to the business of locking down the second tunnel digger.

"Wow, he DOES have a stick up his butt," Cyn marveled.

"Not a bad butt though," Anna mused, picking up her dSLR and snapping off a couple of stills of same. She'd already grabbed candids of all the other principals, so it wouldn't do to completely ignore the GJ man. But on the other hand, nothing said that his FACE had to be in any of the shots either.

#####

"Meteosat and GEOS satellite switchovers are confirmed. We've now got three eyes in the sky trained on Māhanga Puia," Tim Possible snapped, his fingers flying over the tiny board he'd hot-wired together from the remains of three videogame systems and a navsat link he'd liberated from a restricted storage area at the Space Center. In a rare deviation from tradition, he HAD asked for permission first and been granted it by his approving father. This Global Rescue gig was going to kick ass!

"I've got the preliminary scans from Volcanolab Riri loaded and the model's building," Jim chimed in. "We should be in real-time in T-minus ten minutes."

"God, Jim, what did you use, a Pentium?"

"Dual Xeon 6 cores, ten of 'em." His twin replied testily. "There's a crapload of data to crunch, the lab's software is only 32 bit and it doesn't mesh worth a damn with the system from the International Seismological Center!"

"Keep down the chatter gentlemen," Wade ordered from his command chair… okay, it was the chair of his desk and the two Possible boys were working from his bed. But furnishings aside, his bedroom was still the most advanced control facility on the planet… and would be until he finished building his dream suite at Kim and Shego's.

"Alright, I'll leave this in your capable hands," Doctor Director nodded from her video screen. As much as she'd like to get personally involved, she had her own agency to run and… despite his age… there was no one on the planet with more experience running missions of this sort than Wade Load.

"Thank you Doctor, if we need your assistance, be assured that we'll call," Wade nodded thankfully. He appreciated it when adults didn't question his abilities just because his voice was still a year or two from cracking. And on that subject, he turned to look at the fourth member of the Mission Ops team, who had just appeared at the door.

"Would any of you boys like a slice of pecan pie or some lemonade?" Wade's mom asked, looking cute as a button in her "My Son Broke the Internet and Fixed it Twice When You Weren't Looking" shirt.

"Yes ma'am!" Came the resounding chorus of three.

######

"That's it," Shego declared. "All systems are green. We are topped off and the umbilical is clear."

The green woman turned to her partner in world-saving and love and grinned in anticipation despite the horrific task that was ahead of them. She couldn't help it.

"Can I say it, Princess?"

Kim ran through her mental checklist and found nothing wanting. "Wade?"

"All clear on this end Kim, forwarding you optimum transit information as we speak."

"In that case, Shego, the honor is yours."

"You got it!" Shego engaged the in-cabin speakers, even though she could have just spoken to the five people and one mole rat sitting behind them by turning her head. That would have lacked drama.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Volcano Air. Flight time is an estimated four hours and the weather at our destination is slightly hotter than hell. Please make sure your seat restraints are firmly tight across your waist, unless you're a mole rat, in which case it's your harness you need to secure. If Māhanga Puia is not on you list of travel destinations for today, you're shit out of luck, because we are gone!"

And now, as the main engines began firing with a mighty roar, Shego savored every last word. "Hold on to your tushies folks, because…"

The force of four gravities slammed everyone back into their seats as the most powerful vehicle on the planet slammed into the sky and its pilot screamed in delight…

"GLOBAL RESCUE IS **GO**!"


	24. Chapter 24

_Aaa! This story just passed the 100,000 word mark! Granted, a bit of that is little author's notes like this and those dang #####'s i have to use to keep some things separated, but even so... For those who wondered Māhanga Puia, Māhanga Rahi, Māhanga Riri and even 'tino kno' are all real words in Maori, although 'tino kino' would probably be better translated out as just 'this is bad,' but the islands themselves are fictitious. For those who didn't catch it "Thunderbirds are Go!" was a key catchphrase of International Rescue in Thunderbirds... the prototype for Global Rescue, needless to say; if all of this has made you curious, check out the original "__Supermarionation" TV series or theatrical films from the '60s. The live action remake from a few years ago had it's moments, but was overall a horrific disaster of the wrong on-screen kind. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Will Du, Yori, Rufus, the Tweebs and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Anna and Cyn, though my creations, are beginning to reconsider the literary business after what I've just committed them to. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 24

#######

As the curvature of the Earth replaced the flat horizon outside the window, Shego finally released the throttles and allowed Global Rescue One's sophisticated autopilot system to take temporary control of the ship. It wasn't that she didn't trust the technology, she just hated giving up a single second of the experience. In all her years of flying, she'd never flown another vehicle that was such an overwhelming rush to pilot, and the only reason she was even willing to let a machine take over the helm was that the single aerodynamic marvel that rocked her senses even more was waiting on her.

With a sigh at having to make such a choice, she clicked the APS mode to lock, then swiveled her pilot's chair around to face the rear of the cabin… and an entire crew engaged in the act of devouring an unhealthily wide assortment of Bueno Nacho products.

"Um… breakfast naco?" asked Ron, chewing like a cow and proffering a bag of ground same to a green face that didn't quite sneer at the offering, but ultimately took one of the simulated mock reproductions of an imitated food item with reluctance. Shego had eaten worse things in her life. Mostly out of dumpsters, when she'd been on the street, but worse. But she didn't have to like it.

In the meantime Kim, who had been hastily stuffing something that didn't QUITE look like a breakfast naco into her mouth when Shego turned, crossed back to her assigned position at the front and duplicated Shego's seat reversal motion, all the while avoiding certain suspicious looks.

"All right everyone, now that we're ALL ready," The redhead began, affecting a long suffering look for the benefit of the non-green members of the team, and picking up a wireless 3D mouse, "Let's begin the mission briefing. Wade's going to bring everyone up to date on what he and I have worked out, then we'll re-open the plan to the group, tear it apart, and rebuild it. Okay?"

When everyone nodded assent, she pointed the 3D mouse to an empty spot a few feet in the air in front of her and clicked. "Go ahead, Wade."

"Right Kim," Wade's disembodied upper torso appeared in front of Kim, Shego and the rest of the team via what their underage tech team had taken to calling a "omni-holograph." What that meant was that while it projected a 3 dimensional image, it always appeared to be seen from the exact same perspective, no matter what viewing angle you observed it from, while three-dimensional pointers could be moved back and forth through the image with a 3D mouse originally designed for computer graphics design. "Here's what we've learned so far."

Wade's voice continued as his body disappeared, replaced by a three-dimensional model of the twin islands that composed Māhanga Puia, before zooming quickly in on a small section on the southwest shore of Riri. As the POV dropped to the a simulated height of 500 feet, the image flicked as an actual photo of the area appeared and was wrapped over the more generic 3D model. "This is the staging area we'll be working from, a helipad just south of Volcanolab 2. It's just big enough for GR One to land in and currently well upwind of Riri's main vents, so if we do see some kind of eruption on this side, it will at least keep some of the lahars away, and in a worse case scenario is in running distance of the Lab. The main reason in choosing it, however, is that the area seems to be structurally stable, something that's important to keep in mind because…."

The view pulled back slightly and moved back over to the other island. "…we can't say the same about Rahi, where the entire island seems to be undergoing a series of underground collapses. One section goes, the stress is moved to a new strata, pressure builds and the rocks sheer under the weight in a cycle. The good news is that we haven't SEEN any major collapses in the last hour and it MAY have settled, but as more lava continues to move out and onto the east side of the island it's possible… in fact probable… that we'll see another major shift as more weight accrues on that side of the island. In the meantime, it probably feels like an earthquake every time the strata-load changes."

A schematic of the Volcanolab complex appeared on the holo next. Several sections had already been highlighted in dark red with the notation 'destroyed' and a half dozen more were designated in a lighter pink as 'failing.' Only the USA area, currently highlighted in blue and white, was noted as 'secure.' "Weight is also a major issue we have to worry about with Volcanolab 1. We have no way of knowing exactly how much loose rock was on top of the lab when the first waves of lava hit, but the fact that it IS loose means that while it may be insulating, it's not providing any structural support… worse, it may already be in the process of being swept away by the lava passing over it, in which case the walls of the facility will simply fail as they make direct contact with the magma. And even if the rock buffer zone remains, at some point the weight of all the mass above may be too much for the Lab exterior to withstand, at which point…"

The entire Volcanolab 1 complex winked over to red and a 'Game Over' sign flashed over the entire image.

"So, to sum up," Kim inserted, "We've got 2 initial problems to deal with. First, we've got to find a way into the lab that doesn't require attempting to burrow through molten rock, but in order to buy time to do that, we've first got to remove or at least relieve that pressure, which is currently building as new waves of lava roll over the tops of the existing ones."

"Right." Wade was temporarily back on the holo. "So to address the pressure issue, we first investigated the idea of cutting a drainage channel near and away from the lab, but the new lava field is extremely wide and we've only got two tunnel diggers and a limited number of shaped charges. Making a channel large enough to actually divert the flow would both take too long and drain the TD's so completely that we would have to wait for a full pack recharge before we could begin the actual rescue."

"Instead," The uber-geek continued, "The best solution we've been able to come up with is to turn off the lava at the source."

"Like a dam?" Will asked, forgetting he was supposed to ask questions later, but it was a good question and Wade simply shook his head and picked up the ball.

"No, that would require diverting or lifting in huge amount of material, and time is our enemy. It's a lot faster and simpler to dump the lava out elsewhere, and we can do that by breaching the containment wall here…. on the other side of the lava lake inside…. which will channel the flow this way, back to the north."

"And this is where it gets nasty," Kim added. "We'd hoped to be able to do this from the hovercraft but the Tunnel Digger's were never designed to be operated from a distance of more than 20 feet and the rock at that point is thick. It would take a long, long time to cut through as much rock as we need to, even assuming that we could keep the hovercraft stable enough to hit the same spot repeatedly, so what we'll do is use a TD to weaken an area and use all our shaped charges to blow the rest of the way through. At that point gravity should do our work for us."

"Unfortunately," Wade chimed back in, and an image of swirling clouds as seen from orbit appeared on the 3D screen, "As you can see from this live weathersat image, the massive heat discharge from the volcano is already affecting the local weather patterns and we've got a huge storm center building. By the time we get there, that air isn't just going to be turbulent; it's going to be full of lightning."

"Which means we're going to have to put a team physically on the ground here," Kim nodded gravely, using her 3D mouse to indicate an area at the base of the North Eastern slope. "By getting in closer we'll be able to make deeper cuts and plant the charges more accurately. If we bring down this entire section, it should cause most of the flow to start running in the other direction pretty quickly. We'll need to get our team out before that happens, so our hovercraft will have to be dedicated to this unit from the moment they drop."

"Meanwhile," Wade picked up the narrative, "Since time is critical, we'll already be addressing the other problem with a second team. It's not going to be possible to drill down… even if we completely cut off the lava flow, the radiant heat from the lava already laid down will persist for weeks. Therefore, instead of going in from above, we'll come up from below with the other tunnel digger." They were now looking at a cutaway view of the island. "That means going in here and coming in at this angle… Unfortunately, there's no place nearby that's suitable for GR One to land, so we'll need to shuttle that team in with the hover first before the lava team can go in. And needless to say, we have to keep the tunnels down far enough that there's enough stability that the weight of the lava above doesn't cause a roof collapse, and with the micro-earthquakes and all the underground shifting, it's going to be hairy. We're still trying to come up with a way to shore up the tunnels in the immediate vicinity of the rescue team, but since they'll have one of the TDs with them, at least they'll be able to dig through any small cave-ins."

"And that's another thing," Kim added. "Only about half the people in this room have Kimmunicators, but on a mission this dicey I don't want to run the chance of someone getting lost or separated. Therefore…" She pulled out a handful of familiar looking round objects, "Everyone's getting one of these."

"Are those are the trackers for the E.N. Focus system?" Anna asked.

"Yes," Wade responded. "With our satellite coverage, we'll be able to track them even through the thickest smoke and VOG."

"And to make sure no one drops their's," Kim picked up one of the trackers and popped in her mouth, swallowing.

"Are those safe?" Anna was aghast.

"Perfectly ma'am," Jim's voice filtered over the holo. "They won't digest…"

"And if we don't see it having moved to the sewer in the next week or so," Tim added, "Mom's got this great super laxative."

"So," Kim addressed the full group. "Thoughts?"

Everyone sat for a moment in awe of the scale of the plan… as well as no little reservation about its inherent riskiness.

Not surprisingly, Ron was first out of the gate. "Can we just throw it a virgin? That always works in the movies."

"Oh sure, now that YOU'RE safe, you bring that up," Kim scoffed, appreciating the break in tension. "And since we didn't bring a Tweeb…"

For some reason, all eyes in the cabin turned to Will.

"What?" He asked. "But I did have a question, Mr. Load. Everything you and Kim have said thus far utilizes only the gear we're bringing with us. Have we inventoried the stock and equipment inventories at Volcanolab 2?"

"Ah… " Wade began. "Now that you mention it, we did a quick scan for explosives and heavy heat protection gear. No to the first, but they've got a small surplus of the second. Why?"

"Because if that aerial surveillance shot you showed us is current," the GJ man continued, "That appears to be a helicopter sitting just off the pad. A Eurocopter AStar, going by the outline."

"Damn!" Wade swore just as Shego exclaimed "Beautiful!"

"And you're a qualified helicopter pilot aren't you," Kim grinned.

"As is Shego," Will pointed out. "And what you may not be aware of is that I've also trained in one of Drakken's hovercraft since he joined GJ."

"Very good. VERY good Will…" Kim's brain was working, so she didn't bother to mention that she'd also had some recent training in the hovercraft. "If that chopper's operational, you've just saved us a lot of time and given us some needed back up. So instead of two teams, three. Use the helicopter to land the demo team, the hovercraft to shuttle in the tunnel group, then the hovercraft team detaches as an emergency back up to put out whatever fires come up. Anybody else have some bright ideas?"

"Yeah," Shego nodded. "Will made a good point about Volcanolab 2's equipment inventory, but what about their staff? Any able bodies we can coerce to volunteer?" At Kim's raised eyebrow, she continued. "I'm thinking of some strong, able bodied interns to work a TD, plus someone with the geology and volcanology smarts to make sure the tunnel team is going the fastest and most stable way. No insult to you, Wade, but this is a case where it would help to have someone who professionally has rocks in their head."

"Another great point," Kim agreed. "Get on that as soon as you can, Wade, and even if no one volunteers, see if we can get someone to remote in via a Kimmunicator. Oh, and ask them if they have any idea on the shoring problem."

"Actually, KP, I think I've got that handled," Ron spoke up. "If my monkey powers could knock the Lowardians back into orbit, I think I can hold up a few rocks long enough for us to dig out."

"You're sure?"

"Note serious face."

"Got it, but double check on options anyway, Wade. They've probably got something around for working in trenches."

Yori was next, not with an idea as another point of information, which was that she had a few small shaped charges of her own.

"Not many I am afraid," She sighed. "We were traveling commercial air and it's hard to carry more than a few pounds of explosives these days."

"Okay, this is looking much more like a plan," Kim smiled in satisfaction. "Any other comments, questions, etc.?

"Yes Princess, I have one."

"Shoot."

"Did you know that breakfast nacos don't come with queso sauce?"

"Uh… yeah," Kim answered slowly, confused by the non-sequitur. "Why?"

"Because you are so busted, cupcake." Shego leaned in and licked the tiny yellow speck on Kim's chin. "Yep. Now what did I say about disobeying the Dragon?"

"Oh, don't worry," Kim's eyes were oddly neutral. "You're about to get your chance to punish me."

######

"You want us to do WHAT?" Will looked shocked.

"I want you to cut it, and Shego to burn," Kim spoke coolly, holding a watch battery sized device out for inspection. "This is a microphone and batterypack for the transceiver that was implanted in my head during my surgery. I was supposed to go back in next week to have this dental half inserted by an oral surgeon my Mom recommended, but I want you to hook it up to the contacts so I have a hands-free system now. The wires have already been extended down into my jaw, so we just need to connect the contacts and secure it to make the whole thing functional."

"And we need to do this now, why?" Will still couldn't believe what she was asking.

"We're going to be short Kimmunicators this trip," Kim shrugged. "Ron's got his, Yori's already got my spare, you'll be using the Shegofone, so that leaves one: mine, but with the wireless implant activated and in dual mode, Shego and I can split mine and it'll be almost as good as having two, and it'll probably be easier to work inside one of those Vulcan suits anyway."

"But," she continued, "for it to work, it's got to be secured rock solid for the sub-vocal microphone to function properly. So I want you to do just what the surgeon would have done: cut a hole around where the connections terminate… the areas dyed and the wires are color coded, hook everything up to the right contacts, and then Shego will cauterize the whole thing in."

"Every time I think you can't come up with something crazier to do to yourself," Shego grimaced, "You go and prove me wrong. You DO realize that the mouth is one of the worst places for infections, don't you?"

"Then I'll use the really nasty tasting mouthwash first," Kim put on a forced smile. "And you'll have to burn the area really good."

Odd, how she ended up having to comfort THEM over the issue. "It's okay, I'm a big girl. I won't cry."

And she didn't. It hurt even worse than she had imagined it would, but she wouldn't let them see that. Shego had looked positively nauseous as the smell of Kim's burning flesh floated back up in her face, but her control was rock solid… as hopefully the new scar tissue would make the implant.

But it had been her idea, so bearing the pain for it was her responsibility. And by the time she had chewed up a half-dozen painkiller tablets and the throbbing had started to subside, they were at the islands.

Where, it rather appeared, the Gates of Hell had opened.

######

"My God," Cyn exclaimed, grabbing video over Kim's shoulders as Anna snapped off stills. "The entire island is on fire."

'_Except for the tiny little portion to the North and North East, that we intend to torch ourselves,'_ Kim thought, staring out at a scene that made Mount Doom look like a peaceful place to take a Sunday picnic. The roiling storm clouds overhead and the black ash and smoke from the volcano itself had dropped the amount of visible daylight to less than a third of normal, but there was sufficient fire bouncing back from the rumbling clouds that the entire area was suffused with a dirty reddish orange glow that shifted and flew like echoes of flame as the storm winds churned the shifting patches of light like a volcano-driven cyclone. No, not like, it WAS a volcano-driven cyclone, and they were about to head directly for the center of the storm.

Kim checked her watch. Local time: just after 8:00 AM. Unbelievable.

"Alright ladies, gentlemen, mole rats! Strap yourselves in for landing, but don't get too comfortable. As soon as Shego says we're down, we move. Anyone not clear on their duties?" She hadn't expected any 'no's' and she didn't get any. Everyone was already in the ultra-heat resistant uniforms that would hopefully protect them from anything short of direct immersion in lava or a pyroclastic flow, but the helmets were at their sides, the internal air-supplies still in reserve mode. "In that case, we land in…"

"Five… four… three… two… one!" Shego voice bellowed, mounting in volume with each word.

"NOW!"

A bone jarring thump. The sound of pneumatics locking.

"DOWN! Wheels secured and HATCHES OPEN!" Shego screamed like a Klaxon and suddenly the inside of the plane was filled with noise, haze and swirling wind and the stinking odor of sulfur assaulted their senses. But they were prepared for it… and this was nothing compared to the hellstorm that would be waiting for them on Rahi.

"Okay people," Kim shouted as her scratch-built team went into battle against the forces of the God of Fire himself. "LET'S ROLL!"


	25. Chapter 25

_This one came out unbelievably fast. In fact, it also ran way long so I finally decided to cut it where I did rather than the VERY nasty place the next one may end, unless I decide to change things again. A LOT of the threads that have been running in the background are finally coming to the fore, so that made this installment heavy on the dialog and psychological drama but 26 will be a rock-em sock-em action fest, guaranteed. Thanks to those who're sending in reviews. It's really the only feedback I get on this besides my own satisfaction, so even if it's not positive, I like hearing what's going on. As a reward for reviewers, I'm working up a chapter that I drafted out but never actually wrote that will be sent to reviewers only via PM. I'll post when it's ready, and for those who've reviewed in the past, I'll be sending out a PM letting you know when it's available and if you want it because… yes… it will include some adult material. And as a hint: Twister. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Will Du, Yori, Rufus, Wade Load, the Tweebs, Dr. Director, Dr. Drakken and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 25

#######

The wind tore at them with tiny daggers of volcanic glass as ripples of sheet lighting shattered the skies overhead. And they hadn't even made it completely out of the ship yet.

"Grav-Levs on!" Shego voice yelled from inside the hovercraft.

"Got it! Safety locks off! Push!" Kim screamed back/commanded as she snapped off the restraints and she, Ron and Yori pushed the now weightless hovercraft out of the back of GR One. Anna was already on the ground with Will and Yori, but Cyn's video captured the frightening moment as the vehicle seemed to tip ominously as it hit the steep incline and spun sideways in the howling wind. Instead of capsizing, however, it ultimately simply slipped smoothly over the edge like soap out of a nervous prisoner's fingers, bobbing, bouncing and wiggling on an invisible cushion of anti-gravity jello as it settled to the ground below. And no sooner had the masterpiece of Drakken's engineering plopped itself to the unfirm terra firma of the Riri's volcanic soil than the pilot inside cut the power and popped out of the hatch… just in time to see Will Du sprinting back across the helipad with a frantic look in his eyes.

"Will!" Shego demanded. "You're already finished prepping the Helo?"

"No!" Will screamed as he ran past in the direction of Volcanolab 2. "Don't even ask! You have to see it to freaking believe it!"

That was too much for Shego. She ran back across the mini-field and peered into the chopper's cockpit. Will was right. It was the stupidest thing she'd ever seen.

"Why the HELL would someone put a Safe-T-Klub on a helicopter?" She vented as she looked at the heavy metal bar that had been awkwardly locked down over the controls. She could PROBABLY melt it off… at the risk of severely damaging the instruments… but instead of a pickable key, the device had a combination lock.

"Shego, what…?" Kim managed as this time it was Shego who ran past in the direction of the lab facility.

Kim sighed. Apparently the demon Murphy had already made his appearance.

#######

Inside the lab, Will was having a heated discussion with the senior researcher in charge, who unfortunately wasn't very senior. The actual head of Volcanolab 2 had been… what a shock… over at Volcanolab 1 trying to score the latest videos when the lava flows hit. Apparently one of the pilots had been taking a certain sleep medication… something that was almost ubiquitous among the staff given that they were literally living on top of a giant and very active geological bomb… and had actually been caught attempting to lift off while still sound asleep. Unfortunately, no one knew what the combination was and the erstwhile pilot had been… this was beginning to get monotonous… over at Volcanolab 1, although he was listed as visiting the infirmary to see about a lung infection.

They were interrupted by the loud pounding at the door… roughly the same volume and intensity as would be achieved were a lovesick rhinoceros attempting to copulate with the entrance while wearing a titanium condom… and a vaguely feminine voice bellowing something that was impossible to hear amid all the other din.

"What the hell," the senior researcher, a burly, bearded ginger-hair whose name, coincidentally, WAS Murphy, blurted, "is that?"

The number three researcher in charge… a title they had actually given to the small, wrinkled and probably more than a little senile man in order to both justify his enormous salary and keep him out of the hair of his superiors at the main lab, peered out the tiny quartz safety window and gasped! "Aaa! It is the Lowardians!"

"What?" about half of the staff inside the lab responded in shock. As shitty as their day had been going, an alien invasion would have been just about par for the course.

"The woman outside knocking, she is green!" Number 3, whose actual name was Deschanel, informed them with alarm.

"Oh for the love of God," Will exclaimed. "That's Shego." To Deschanel's blank look of puzzlement. "You don't know Shego? Saved the planet along with Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, who are also with us. And Dr. Drakken."

"Oh, the blue man!" Deschanel's attention leaped illogically, ignoring the pounding that was still going on outside. "I remember. With the pretty flowers?" He peered suspiciously at Du. "You are not Blue anymore? Where are your flowers?"

"I'm not Dr. Drakken," Will snapped, wondering who the hell's tax money was paying for this idiot and if it was his, how to get a refund. "I'm Will Du, Global Justice."

"Oh. Why did the blue man not come?"

"He wasn't coming. He never… " Du looked at Murphy for help. "Why are we talking about him?"

At that point Kim materialized inside the lab in the form of a hologram, which was holding a perfect holo of the Klub in its hands. "Will, you've apparently got your Shegofone set on mute; I had to hack in via remote. Let Shego in, and get the volunteers ready to go."

"How did you…" Du began, staring at the H-Klub.

"Yori did it." Kim shrugged. Ninjas. Best not to ask. "Dr. Murphy? I'm Kim Possible. I'd offer to shake your hand but I'm not real right now. Have you managed to make any further contact with the staff on Volcanolab 1?"

"Not exactly," the bearded researcher replied, as an irritated Shego was finally let in behind him and was filled in by Du. "But we know they're alive and well."

"How's that?"

"Someone finally snapped to the fact that this is a seismic research center. They've been banging on things in Morse for the last two hours. It's not easy to make it out with everything else going on, but our people ARE good."

"Excellent," Kim smiled. At last some positive news. "Is there any chance that they could hear a message from us?"

"From this distance, no. Not with an active volcano in the way. But from a bit closer to the lab… maybe a thousand feet or so, certainly."

"Good to know," Kim nodded, filing the fact away. "Agent Du here will be ferrying Ron and your volunteers over to Rahi to start the bore-in process. If you have someone familiar with Morse, I suggest you try to make contact as soon as you land. If nothing else, they ought to be able to detect the sound of the Tunnel Diggers. If you pulse the power, it's pretty distinctive."

"I know Morse," Murphy informed the group, "So does Stephens."

"In that case, let's be about it. Shego, it looks like Will's got at least two loads to ferry in, so why don't you do your own preflight on the 'copter?"

"Right." Shego grunted, pulling open the mammoth airlock type doors… now noticeably dented on the outside… and walked back into the storm without another word.

#######

Fortunately, except for the stupidity with the Klub, everything else about the chopper… which was, as Will had guessed, an AS350, but one of the BB series rather than the B3 Shego had hoped for… seemed to be fine. She'd never actually stolen one before so she couldn't be sure, but she had a suspicion that their new ride had probably started life as an RAF Squirrel HT.1 or its Australian RAN equivalent. It wasn't a bad vehicle, but the derated Arriel 1D1 engine… a compromise to improve operational life-cycle, which made sense stationed out in the middle of nowhere… lacked the kick in the pants of its big sister, an ultra-high performance version powered by a thumping Arriel 2B that had been the first helicopter to ever land on the top of Mt. Everest.

Normally she'd be drooling.

But still, it beat swimming or walking, she thought at she locked the cyclic and collective controls, put the master fuel valve in and started flipping the circuit breakers. When she got to the fuel, she was pleased to see that the tanks were nearly full.

The door on the other side of the cockpit opened and Kim popped inside, clutching two canvas SmatryMart carrysacks with the words 'explosives' scrawled on them in magic marker. Like Shego, she'd tied her hair back in a ponytail and tucked it inside the collar of her thermal suit. Not the best way of handling it, but certainly the quickest and it would make putting on the sealed helmets on a lot easier. It also had the effect of making Kim look even younger than she already was.

"Okay, Will's ferrying over the…" The redhead began.

"Quiet," Shego cut her off. The last thing she needed was a distraction while going through her checklist on an unfamiliar craft. She'd have preferred to have kept the Hover, but it moved a lot more weight and, frankly, was easier to fly. She sought escape in her checklist:

Fuel boost on  
Fuel cut off in for 3 seconds  
Fuel cut off out  
Fuel boost off  
Throttle closed

Damn, she wished she'd flown one of these before.

Pressing the engine starter button, she waited 'til it fired, depressed the fuel cut off and rolled on the throttle to increase engine rpms. Between inside and outside she could barely hear a damn thing.

"Headsets," She reminded Kim, who put on her own pair of ear protectors as Shego engaged the radio, transponder and beacon in rapid order, leaving out the in-copter intercom circuit. RPM were at 1400, still climbing. Dummy check to see if any fools were in the area attempting to make like Marie Antoinette… no, clear. Engaging rotor. Clutch… oil temp looking right. RPMs at 2200… increase manifold, 2 seconds left, 2 secnods right, rotor up and…

"We got everything?" She shouted to Kim over the engine roar.

"TD's aft in cargo," the Redhead confirmed. "Charges here, dets in back. Thought I'd keep 'em separated for now."

"Good idea," Shego nodded. She knew more than she should about explosives, but somewhere along the way Kim had picked up full ATF certification and some not so official and considerably more advanced hands on-demolitions training from some SEALS. Was there anything dangerous the girl hadn't found a way to get her tiny mitts into? Which brought the thought that had been rubbing her raw inside, that she'd been suppressing for hours, rushing right back to the fore…

"Here we go," Shego announced, ignoring the issue, and the Volcanolab chopper rose into the stormy sky to meet its namesake.

######

"It's unbelievable," Anna gasped as they came in from the south side of the Rahi, snapping off a handful of stills. The lava fields dwarfed anything she had seen in her visits to Hawaii or Iceland, though she'd never been at either of those during a full eruption. After a lot of talk back and forth, it had been decided that she would be staying on the hovercraft with Will and Yori while Cyn would join Ron and his group as they bored down into the flesh of the volcano. Cyn's comparative youth had been a major deciding factor, although Anna liked to feel she was still in great shape for someone her age, but the truth was that she also felt that the actual rescue process would be somewhat simpler to document. Anna envied the emotional content of the footage her assistant was going to capture… assuming everything went well… but seeing the epic scale of the destruction and chaos enveloping the island, the photographer was now glad that she'd be staying above the Earth. She was used to photographing beautiful celebrities in their worst moods, but compared to gorgeous Mother Earth have a full out tantrum, all else paled into insignificance.

"I've never seen anything like it either," The bearded scientist named Murphy agreed as he fought for a vantage point with Ron and Cyn, who was already grabbing video. "When this is over, the entire shape of the island will have changed… if it's even still there at all. Half of the west side is already gone."

"Kinda like Atlantis," Ron marveled. He ought to be scared, but instead he was excited. It had been too long since he'd run a mission with Kim. He'd never be the danger-junkie she was, but while you could take the boy out of the adventure…

He wished Yori could be here, but the flight was already over-packed and she was basically being treated as a reserve asset at the moment. He'd get to see her briefly when Will came back with the second load, but it did make sense to partner her with Will where her vastly superior experience in climbing and rescue skills would serve as a good match for the GJ man's piloting ability. And Kim was right about Will, Ron had to admit; he'd been prepared for the usual officious butthead he and Kim had run into in the past, but he'd firmly accepted his place as Kim and Shego's subordinate and… Ron wondered if Will had noticed this himself yet… seemed to be accomplishing a lot now that he wasn't trying to do everything by "the book."

Actually, Will WAS doing everything by the book. It was just that the BOOK was no longer the GJRegs, it was the Global Rescue Ops plan that he'd already committed to memory. An ops plan that emphasized synergy and individual initiative over regulations and regimentation. Yes, there was a chain of command, but when the goal was to save lives, the person on the spot was encouraged to take whatever action necessary as long as they were certain that they had a full grasp of the situation. In this order, it was actually Wade who was the lynchpin on which all else hung, not Kim, Shego or, in this case, Will Du, who would eventually move to a less field-orientated position that would perform many of the task that Wade and Kim's brothers were performing now.

He clamped down on the anti-gravs as they began to hit the thermal turbulence being put off by the now nearly mile wide lake of lava. With the Hovers, the trick was actually to increase gravity rather than power when going through rough patches. Otherwise, the essentially weightless vehicles were inclined to flip or go into a spin, something that would be very bad with as many unsecured passengers as he was currently hauling. He imagined Shego could do much better… in both training and analysis they'd repeatedly watched videos of the woman performing feats in Hovers that Drakken still claimed were impossible, despite the evidence to the contrary . It had become both Du and Dr. Director's conviction that the real reason the crazed genius had refused to bring Shego over to GJ with him had been fear for his own job security, and having since learned that a number of the tweaks to the grav-systems had been developed by the green woman rather than the blue madman, that theory seemed to have advanced to the status of an almost certain of that fact. But at the time it had seemed like Shego, while a deadly presence in her own right, had been just a hired hand for Drakken. In the end, it looked like only Kim Possible had ever really understood the green woman or her true potential.

#######

At that particular moment, Kim didn't understand what was going on with Shego at all. And it was driving her crazy.

As the Squirrel was blasted back and forth by alternating thermal drafts and hurricane force winds, Shego's eyes seemed locked in permanent scan mode out the front of the cockpit… Which was fine, but why wasn't she talking to her? Kim had put on the acoustic-damping headsets as soon as she'd been told to, but Shego had never gone on and made the final step of switching on the connecting intercom. Realizing Shego's attention was occupied, Kim had waited patiently for the green woman to eventually turn them on, and hopefully to tell her what was on her mind, but they were a third of the way to their destination and she still hadn't spoken. The dragon's face seemed stony. And cold. And it was starting to worry her.

So Kim went around the system. Reaching up to a place directly below her ear she engaged the remote override mode on the Kimmunicator hanging on Shego's belt. The woman already had her own blue-tooth earbud in, so they had an uninterrupted private chanel that Kim now controled.

"Is something wrong?" Kim asked.

Shego flinched at the unexpected voice, but turned her head to look at Kim with an expression of… no, it wasn't quite incredulity, it was something else…

"Is something wrong?" The green woman parroted back, then with far more emotion. "Is something WRONG?"

And to Kim's horror, Shego burst into tears.

"You asked me to BURN you Princess. Right after you implied I wanted to punish you. In front of EVERYBODY."

"Oh." Kim gaped in shock, an 'oh' as in '_Oh dear God.' _What had she been thinking? "I… was just…"

"I know you were trying to make light of it, Kim, but it still hurt," Shego tried to pull it back in. Unsuccessfully. "And while I was doing it, it took me to a really, really dark place… back when sometimes I really DID want to hurt you."

Kim remembered the nausea that had been on Shego's face. She'd attributed it to the smell. The burning smell.

Maybe she'd only been partially right.

For all the pain in her voice, Shego's hand still reached out and touched Kim's knee for brief reassuring squeeze, an effect unfortunately diluted by both her thick gloves and Kim's heavy suit. "I'll get over it but… if you love me Kim; if you REALLY love me, don't ever, EVER ask me to do something like that again."

"Please." The voice that came out in didn't sound like Shego at all. She sounded like a lost little girl; a sound so completely out of place in the competent professional pilot who continued to steer them forward through the worst flying conditions Kim had ever seen.

"I… of course I love you, you…" Kim bit off the word 'idiot' before it escaped, that would be smart, wouldn't it? Especially when Kim had been the idiot! "And I don't even know how to begin to tell you how sorry I am. You don't think I wanted that do you?" A horrifying thought. "Oh God, you DON'T think that, do you?"

A strange sad smile twisted Shego's face, highlighted by a sky-wide flash of lightning that seemed to turn the entire canopy into a Chiarosuro relief. "My head knows, but the heart's got some issues. Finding out what a danger-freak you really are has got me a little unhinged, okay? Like maybe there's a suspicion that I'm just the new rocket-powered, razor-tired unicycle in your life."

Kim stared at her in shock. How could Shego think Kim was thinking of her as a… a… SEX toy?

Heavy crosscurrents slammed into the copter and suddenly they were going thirty degrees further away than they had been a second before, but Shego responded before Kim would even have had time to comment, had she not been so stunned.

"I told you you were getting the world's most fucked up girlfriend, didn't I?" The green woman smirked awkwardly, showing she'd read Kim's thoughts perfectly. "And I said I understand everything intellectually, which I do. But I never promised I was always going to be logical about it either. There are days when I'm doing good just to appear rational. And when I'm PMSing… one of us may need a hotel. Or a bomb shelter."

Kim found herself letting out a partial sigh of relief. As sucky as it made her feel, the good part about all that was that obviously Shego still intended to stick with her. Not that Kim was out of the hot water yet, because she had made a critical and criminally stupid mistake in not taking the other woman's feelings into account. She'd barely been able to handle boyfriends before, and a girlfriend, as she should have known by virtue of her own emotional maelstrom, was going to be a lot higher maintenance.

Did this make her the 'guy' in this relationship? With her personality, that may have been what Shego was expecting… or did they both have to assume both parts of the dance? But at least right now she knew how to do the one thing guys NEVER seemed to. She knew when to simply listen.

And Shego must have seen that that's what she was going to do, because the words started to flow. "I'm sorry for melting down like this Princess, but I spent years… years… afraid to get close to anyone because of what I am. That's one of the main reason I disappeared after the Lowardians. To get a handle on myself. I… I knew I loved you a long time ago. Monkey boy saw clearer than both of us, but I tried not to think about it because I couldn't trust me not to hurt you. I had to see if I could function as a normal person… as normal as I can ever be, anyway.

"And could you?" Kim had to ask.

"Not really." Shego frowned, sparing as much of a look at her as she could while dodging the copter around a particularly nasty looking cloud, and at the end the dark face was broken by a warmer ray of light. "I missed you too much… even just what we had before. As pathetic as it is, that was the closest I'd ever got to anyone… to a relationship. I mean, I had the weird employee/employer thing with Drakken, but in the end I was really just a tool for him."

Shego's tone was stronger and surer now. "So when I got Lucre's invitation I was ready for any excuse to come back. I high-tailed it across the Pacific so fast I probably left skid marks in the clouds."

"How'd he know how to find you?"

"You're kidding right? Don't you know all us reformed ex-supervillains belong to a club?" Yes, the old Shego was definitely coming back. "He never didn't know where I was. He'd been sending me updates on Middleton and… everything else to do with a certain red-headed sex kitten."

"Oh." Kim was beginning to wonder if she was the only one who hadn't at least some idea of what was going on between them at that point.

"Oh she says," Shego made a strange sound halfway between a laugh and a sigh. "If you only knew. That morning we first met, to talk about the calendar? I must've changed clothes six-seven times. Twice I had the catsuit on, but then I'd think what if it brings back bad memories? The outfit I ended up in I chose because I thought it made me look softer, less dangerous..."

"I'd wondered about the flip-flops." Kim admitted. And in retrospect, had found Shego's bare green legs fascinating.

"Bought in a quickie mart two blocks from the hotel," Shego confessed. "Decided the $400.00 Jimmy Choos sent the wrong message."

"Wow. So you went in with the idea of…"

"I don't know what I was thinking Kim." A downdraft batted the copter down almost two hundred feet, but Shego seemed to correct for it without even concentrating. "That we'd end up like this? Not in a million years. I just wanted…"

"Someone who understood." That was an easy jump to make. It was what Kim herself had wanted more than anything else in her entire life.

"Yeah. Exactly." A more serious expression as the copter almost flipped and Shego fought to keep it vertical while Kim fought to keep her illicit Bueno Nacho. "Which is why what you did hurt so much. Because we seemed to be on the same wavelength and then…"

Kim could see that. Hell, the question was why she couldn't see that before. And that brought up her own little issue that she'd been bottling up.

"Shego… I don't think I can apologize enough for that. But as to why I did it… the surgery, not the being an ass part." How to phase it so it didn't sound completely nuts?

"I did because… sometimes I get these hunches, okay?" That wasn't bad. "Except they're not hunches... it's like I NEED to do this. And every time I've ignored those hunches, really bad stuff has happened."

"What, so you're saying you're PSYCHIC now?" Shego blinked in confusion.

"Maybe. I don't know." Kim had never really thought about telling anybody about this, but if anyone needed, anyone DESERVED to know, it was Shego. "It's not like it's something I can control, it just happens, and for a long time I thought I was just going crazy. But it's been getting stronger lately. More vivid. And for some reason, I have this gnawing feeling that having that microphone implant in could be really important. Same with the trackers. And, for that matter, the OTHER thing. I thought that, if I'm wrong, the worst result is a little pain and maybe an infection. I never thought about how you would feel about it."

Despite the ever worsening conditions, Shego actually turned and looked at her full on. "You're really serious. About the psychic business?"

All Kim could do was shrug. "I told you we belonged together. That's something I just know. You're it. The One. And if you're a freak of nature, it's because of an accident. I was apparently born this way."

"Well…" Shego stared out the window, trying to assimilate all of this. "Well… fuck."

"And you have to know… I only asked you to do… that… because I trust you," Kim swore, telling the complete and absolute truth that she hadn't quite known until this very second. "You will NEVER hurt me love, not that way. We'll fight, we'll argue, we'll wrestle and fuck like demons. And someday…" A vision of two white dresses and so much more blossomed in her head.

"What?" Shego asked, having been left hanging.

Kim simply smiled. "Oh, why ruin the surprise? Trust me, you'll like it."

The rest of the run in was in silence. But it was a different kind of silence. The kind that occurred between two people who'd reached a nearly perfect understanding once more.

Well, almost. There was one thing Kim had to make absolutely sure of.

"So… are we… okay?"

"Yeah. For now." Shego confirmed on a soft exhale, but the look on her face was oddly… expectant. "But one thing Princess."

"Yeah?"

"For the honeymoon we go to Vegas."


	26. Chapter 26

_Woof! This chapter is massive; a lot goes on and… well… you'll see. Glad people liked the last chap and where it took the characters. It's easy to fall into the thinking that Kim, Shego and the others are invulnerable, but sometimes it's the littlest things that take you down. Or, as Kim discovered, what's little for you is major for someone else. Surprised no one has commented on the major reason for Shego's Vegas comment… put psychic and Vegas together and maybe a certain green damsel still has some of her old habits. __ The hit counter passed 30,000 on that chap, though with that being a cumulative, not sure how to read it. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Will Du, Yori, Rufus, Wade Load, the Tweebs, Dr. Director, Dr. Drakken and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 26

#######

Kim had flown into hot zones before, but the ground of Rahi was literally on fire as they landed… even amongst the barest outcrops of rock, there had been patches of moss, molds, tiny ferns. Now many of these had already been set ablaze by sparks, cinders and… far more dangerously… volcanic bombs, large chunks of semi-molten rock ejected from an explosive eruption in a lava vent. They'd chosen their landing position to be as shielded as possible from a missile arcing directly out of the volcano, but rocks bounce when they hit other rocks, and obviously more than a few had hit other obstacles on their way out, tumbling and rolling down the craggy cliffs until they hit rock bottom. Hot enough to melt metal, they had no trouble igniting anything combustible they happened to land on… not to mention the damage they did during the initial impact or should they choose to, as the name implied, explode.

And, unfortunately, the whipping winds were serving to drive the fires in every direction. Kim had been in forest fires before and they were terrifying, but coupled with the madly arcing lightning and the percussive symphony of thunder and volcanic rumble, this was like stepping into an outer ring of Hell. But it should be safe enough to land for a short while, if they could find a place that wasn't already smoldering. Some place completely devoid of anything organic…

Finally Shego spotted a bare, well-shielded area about four hundred yards away from their original landing site and a quick teleconference with Wade and the Tweebs indicated that it was probably as safe a spot as they were going to find. With a deft hand, Shego set the Squirrel down and turned to look at her passenger.

Words weren't necessary. They'd already sealed their helmets, but by unspoken consent, they both inhaled deeply, cracked their visors and leaned together for a quick and desperate kiss. Then the oxygen they'd been holding in their lungs was gone and they had to quickly purge and reseal the plastic shields protecting their faces before they dared breathe. While the air on this side of the island was still cool enough to be theoretically breathable thanks to the wind's constant motion pulling in purer air from the surrounding ocean, theoretically and actually were two different things. Volcanoes were notorious for venting gases unexpectedly, and the burning vegetation was adding its own lethal dosage of carbon monoxide and other toxic fumes… a fact evidenced by the occasional dead bird they ran across. Many were unburned and otherwise completely undamaged, so while obviously the creatures could have flown to relative 'safety' on the shores of Riri, they simply hadn't had the air left in their lungs to make it. The Vulcan suits that Kim and Shego were wearing, designed specifically for the insane explorers and scientists who dropped into volcanoes on a regular basis, each carried enough air in their main tank for an hour's worth of normal activity… they would probably go through it much faster, especially Shego… and they each had an additional spare tank on their backs, as well as a final pair still sitting in the aft storage compartment.

Kim's guess was that it was really less than two hours total breathing time. Way too close for comfort, although they could theoretically tap the special tanks in the helicopter that had been added to feed clean oxygen directly into the systems motor… a logical modification for a vehicle that would spend its life dropping into and out of active volcanoes, as were the special filters to keep volcanic ash out of the entire system. Otherwise their ride out would already be as dead as the poor seabirds.

"Wade, we're down and on point," Kim announced, as they ferried the first and most major part of their payload, the large GJ Tunnel Digger, together to their originally designated target position. "Can you do a visual overlay from Shego's perspective?"

"You got it Kim," Wade's voice replied and a holo-map of the rock wall in front of them appeared, crossed by a red slash that represented the score in the cliff that Shego would have to cut, dotted with green 'x' points where Kim would plant the charges. It wasn't really that high up, a few hundred feet… it was at the underside of a slight but noticeable overhand that they anticipated would come down with just the right nudging… but Kim would have to get up there using only the most basic of mountaineering gear and her hair-dryer grappler. Mostly she'd just free climb, a task that would be a little trickier than usual due to the heavy gloves of her suit.

"Fun," Shego grunted, lifting the TD… a huge device the size and weight of a garbage can filled with scrap metal… by the dual rods on either side, each of which was supposed to be held by one of two normal operators in normal practice. Back when she had initially started working on lairs for Drakken, Shego had "liberated" this particular unit from a slack GJ construction team and had quickly mastered the art of cutting intricate shapes in stone that the manual had insisted the device could not do. She'd even tried her hand at sculpture once and someday some future archaeologists were going to be extremely puzzled by the giant sculpture she'd made that roughly resembled Drakken sitting on the toilet in the classic 'thinker' pose. Carving the accompanying rolls of toilet paper, however, had proved beyond her ability, and Drakken had never caught the resemblance… though almost all of the henchmen had.

All of which meant that she had the experience that would normally have made this job a cakewalk were it not for the fact that they were going to have to cut a lot of rock VERY quickly, the catch being that she couldn't let the cut areas get so hot that the retained heat would make it impossible for Kim to plant the explosive charges that would do the heavy work in the end. And it wasn't the special thermally stable explosives that would be as likely to ignite as the former teen hero. The TD left things HOT.

She snuck in one quick peek at the redhead, barely recognizable inside the clumsy suit, but instantly identifiable by the cat-like way she had perched atop a nearby stack of boulders while pre-building charge/detonator pairs. Ironically, with all of the high-tech equipment they were using, the actual detonation signal would be sent over a rolled length of fine cable that would have been immediately recognizable to any demolitions expert from the mid-twentieth century. Sometimes the simplest method really was the best… which when dealing with high explosives meant the safest… so over the complaints of the Tweebs, who'd developed some computer controlled igniters, Kim was doing things the boring, old fashioned way.

Okay, so maybe the Kitten wasn't a TOTAL danger-freak.

And speaking of keeping things simple…

"Wade, could you keep up those markers for a second for a second," Shego requested, and while she was in the correct position, she quickly ran the TD's beam across the raw rock face, not so much cutting as leaving the equivalent of a pencil mark to follow. "Okay, great," Shego nodded. "You can take it down now, I'll just trace over that."

#####

Normally Wade might have been as affronted as the Tweebs that his fancy targeting system wasn't being used exclusively, but it HAD been used and Shego's going to a simpler method let him devote his resources to other issues. Rahi was turning out to be more unstable than they had feared and Jim's model seemed to be mutating by the second. Worse, the interference being generated by the storm was picking up and combining with magnetic interference from the swirling magma still inside the volcano, with the result that the amount of power necessary to punch through all the noise was going up in an almost geometric progression. And then, and most specifically, the deployment of the 'volunteers' serving with Ron was proving… problematic.

######

"NO! NO! HOLD IT STEADY!" Ron screamed as the pair of hefty grad students unintentionally duplicated Shego's scoring trick across a wide face of rock before the beam went totally wild. Fortuitously, Ron was been able to cut the power via the remote kill switch before there were four scored and severed limbs aglow, but it had been close. He'd become so used to working with super competent partners like Kim and Yori… and yes, Shego and even Drakken… that it sometimes took him a minute to remember that this kind of work didn't come instinctively to most people.

Everything had seemed to be going fine at first, but there was obviously more of a trick to it than Shego made it seem. Unfortunately, she was now on the other side of the island, so that left as the next closest thing to an expert…

Was the scary looking guy standing next to the Hovercraft.

"Will!" Ron cried desperately. "Can you give us a hand?"

Will, who was equally aghast at the lethal force that had just been unwittingly unleashed, stepped forward and took up the left side of the machine, motioning for one of the grad students to take the other side. "Treat it like a coffin," he ordered the grad. "Don't try to pick it up and aim it. Use your legs to do the left/right motions and this angling lever here," he pointed out the locking device that was similar to the clamping mechanism on a draftsman's table, and used it to turn the front focus of the device down at a 50 degree angle… "to do the up/down."

Demonstrating the basic moves, he then engaged the DRILL function and within a few seconds had produced a nice, neat hole going down at an angle into the lava field they were standing on.

"You need to watch the burn rate on the rocks. When you're going through composite strata, you may run into some sections that won't burn as fast, leaving protrusions. It's absolutely vital that you burn those down before trying to continue. Anything sticking too far forward can cause backscatter, which as you might guess, can be lethal."

"Remember," He told the group whose assembled IQs and combined educations probably made one Will Du seem like a caveman in comparison, "A GJTD is designed to do one thing and one thing only. It melts rock using a hypersonic resonator that literally accelerates the atoms in a target until they lose molecular stability. So if any part of you gets in front of it, you won't just get burned, every drop of water in your body will superheat in about three seconds… then it's a race to see if you'll explode from internal steam build up before the time the rest of you simply disintegrates."

"Right," the oldest man, Dr. Murphy, nodded gravely. "And might I suggest that we put THREE men on it in each shift to begin. Two handling the east-west axis and one watching the north south, rotating them so that no one gets too tired."

"Ron?" Will asked. He was going to be out of here in a few minutes and it was important to establish who was in charge.

"Oh, yeah, absolutely. Sounds like a plan," Ron nodded, wondering how a nice Jewish boy from Middleton had ended up in the middle of all this. "And don't forget to keep your respirators on! All that vaporized rock has to go somewhere, and if you think smoking cigarettes is bad for your lungs, you don't even want to think about what rock-crack will do to you…"

The humor took the final edge off the situation that could have been so lethal only seconds before. Ron watched the scientists get the hand of the device and they had already produced a tunnel about six feet in diameter and 15 feet deep by the time he was able to unobtrusively sneak away and edge up beside the Agent.

"Thanks Will," Ron spoke softly. "Uh, I CAN call you Will, right?"

"If I can call you Ron," Will nodded amiably. How had he ever thought this was a group that was into grandstanding? The young man next to him had literally saved the entire planet, yet was intimidated by a difference of just a few years? "And you're welcome. It's always hard, taking command that first time."

"Not for Kim," Ron countered.

"Yes, well… I think we can all agree she's… something unique."

"Yeah," Ron sighed wistfully. "It's weird doing a mission without her but…" His eyes tracked over to the sight of Yori, who was discussing something earnestly with Cyn and Anna. "She's done a damn fine job in picking this team."

"Yes, she has," Will agreed, with no sense of his own ego at all behind it. As ridiculously huge as this job appeared to be, as last minute as all their plans had had to be by necessity, he really thought they were going to pull it off. "It's a hell of a team."

"Now," He added, "Go talk to your girlfriend so I can lift off. Anna wants to grab some shots of the North side of the island while it's still there."

######

An hour later, Shego was still cutting and Kim had planted the first dozen explosives. The wind and lightning hadn't gotten any better, but on the plus side it hadn't got any worse. The hovercraft had flown over a few times… Kim assumed Anna was covering the entire island with Will as her chauffeur… and by now they would have accrued an impressive number of shots of the two women working in flawless harmony. The score in the rock was now nearly thirty feet deep and extended the length of a football field across the base of the a spot on the Northeast side that Geosat and computer modeling showed to be significantly thinner than the surrounding area. Blowing away another hundred feet or so of rock ought to make the difference…

Kim swung from one handhold to the next, freehand, just under the extended overhang that Shego had created, carefully allowing the roll of wire clipped to her belt to unravel just enough to make it to the next designated blast point. She'd used her grappler to cover most of the distance up the cliff, but the underside of the rock was too freshly exposed to trust to anything except testing with actual fingers. At each spot, she had to find a solid enough hand or foot-grip to brace herself as she hammered in the shaped charges, attached a detonator cap and finally a length of wire. She was wiring everything in serial rather than parallel to save time, which like everything else they were doing was a calculated gamble, but the detonator caps themselves were designed to wait a precise 2.5 seconds after being triggered before firing, and each had a super-brilliant LED attached that should be visible from their 'safe zone.' The concept that they'd been operating on was that, if the any of charges failed to receive the detonation charge for whatever reason, they could tell before it happened by the LEDs and probably… best put some big quotation marks around that…"probably" ignite them with a very light blast from the TD. Whether that would actually work was only theory, however, but that was what they had. In the meantime, she did her best to make sure that Plan A worked and Plan B never needed to be tested.

She finished wiring the current charge up and activated the detonator, a tricky enough task to do with one hand, but she was doing it with one while the other held on for dear life. This was the scariest part. With a huge run of cable now stretching across the cliff face, there was always the chance that a stray burst of lighting would strike somewhere along the run… and if it did, every armed detonator would go off in just two and a half seconds. That would give her less time to reach a safe point than it normally did for her to move four feet in this inverted position, at which time the shaped charge would go off, firing most of it's fury deep into the rock, but with more than enough backflow to take off the pretty head of one Kimberly Anne Possible. Not to mention the several hundred million tons of rock and, if they'd done their work right, fresh lava that would immediately follow.

This is why Kim was doing this job herself. It was possible that Yori, Ron or Shego MIGHT have the ability to plant the charges… Yori might even be as good as Kim. But it was a beyond deadly task, and Kim wasn't about to ask anyone to do something like this when she could do it herself. And she had a gut feeling…

And that's when it happened.

#######

For nearly eight hours, the mass of igneous and metamorphic rock that comprised the sub-oceanic portion of the North Side of Rahi had been bearing increasingly greater pressure as the weight of the entire island re-shifted around the axis of the volcano. And for those eight hours, unlike the many strata to the south, the northern stratum had held.

Now, finally, the swelling pools of lava on the east side, coupled with the loss of counterbalance on the west where parts of the island shelf had now completely fallen away, made the final difference. With a mammoth groan of pain, the solid rock of an ancient stratum seven hundred feet down suddenly became liquid under the pressure, squirting sideways like an impossibly dense toothpaste erupting from a tube stomped under a human foot.

The entire island tipped. Not far, just a few feet, but that change made all the difference in the world.

#######

"OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!" Jim screamed as his input and models went berserk! "It's the big one! MAJOR collapse under the NORTH side of the island!"

#######

The shockwave rolled beneath the island like a leviathan molerat plowing the Earth, sending a tidal wave of displaced rock and kinetic energy surging to the surface with the equivalent force of a 7.0 earthquake… 100 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki and the equivalent of over 470 kilotons of TNT. All of which slammed into the unmoving wall of rock that Kim was climbing, even as the massive tremors shattering the Earth were already in the process of making the coarse stone beneath her hands start to crumble.

'Oh fuck!' she had time to think before the disintegrating slag in her hand gave way and she was falling.

No! Wait! Her hands flew out and grabbed the detonator wire, the spinning cable cutting deep into her gloves but the action slowed her fall, then jerked her to the side as the detonator above her gave and the cable parted from the buried shft, sending her into an arc towards a spot some thirty feet BELOW the previous detonator in line. That piton gave as well, sending her again into an arc to the NEXT detonator, which DID hold.

Unfortunately the cable didn't and she was falling again towards the knife edged rocks below.

#####

Leaving a nightmare of destruction in its wake, the shockwave rolled on. The force was so great that it literally threw the lava of the eastern flows up into the air… only a few inches, their liquid nature absorbing most of the change as the displaced magma spread up and out, but the jarring motion prompted much of the topmost layer to shift towards the Northeast following the new tilt of the island. That miraculously relieved some of the pressure on Volcanolab1, whose now completely terrified prisoners were in the process of voiding their bowels into their heat resistant protective suits, and also kept the lava from flowing back towards the boring team.

The shockwave itself, however, was not so kind, grabbing the ground and thrashing it like a pit bull on a poodle.

#####

"DON'T PANIC!" Ron screamed, trying not to do the same himself. Monkey Powers, Monkey Powers…

And BWAM! They were there! An invisible wall of force holding up the incredible weight of the ceiling above him! He was still shaken around like a rag doll, as were all the researchers, and he and Cyn were ultimately the only two left standing. One Murphy apparently canceled out the other, however, as Dr. Murphy, who'd been on the killswitch, had managed to cut the TD off before it could do any damage as the beam wiggled wildly about. The tremor had been the biggest they'd experienced over the last hour, but within a few seconds it appeared that it was over except for the inevitable aftershocks.

For a few more seconds no one moved except Cyn, who was dashing about intent on shooting everything… the researchers' reactions, the glowing monkey-force-field and Ron's own sweating face… from every possible angle, seeming oblivious to the rubber legs that had knocked everyone else over. Either the lower female center of balance had made the difference, he thought enviously, or she'd been so busy doing her job that she simply forgot to fall. The others more wisely stayed put. Often there was a second sub tremor as whatever new strata had taken the load also did a tortured readjustment…

But not this time.

"All clear!" One of the grad students… Ron could never remember any of their names and was tempted to call them all 'buffoon' out of sheer perversity… announced that the tunnel back to the surface was still clear. One of the big advantages of the GJTD system was that the 'vaporized' rock was actually mostly reapplied to the area directly around the area being cut, so the walls of the tunnel essentially had their own pseudo shoring, but it was no match for the psychological reassurance of huge massive overhead timbers. On the other hand, there was no other way that they could have come this far this quickly… well over fifteen hundred feet so far, thanks to the fact that they had the TD against the rock at point blank range, unlike Shego, who was operating from a distance on the other side of the island.

The other side, Ron thought worriedly, wondering how that quake might have affected Kim as he flipped on his Kimmunicator.

######

The analysts at Global Justice might debate many things about Kim Possible, but the one thing they were unanimous on was that no one, perhaps in the entire history of the human race, had ever had better reflexes or thought faster on her feet. Other people might have survived that fall. Some might have even managed only moderate injuries.

But no one else would turn it to their advantage.

Seeing the rocks approaching, Kim's mind went into adrenalin-fueled slow-motion. As the first deadly edge approached, her left hand shot out, grabbing it just long enough to send herself into a spin that put her right hand in position to grab the next projection. Three times more she reversed position in mid fall, each time absorbing a little more of the kinetic energy of her plunge until she finally hit the first obstacle too big to dance around.

Impacting against the pointed spire with her feet, Kim allowed her legs to partially collapse at a controlled pace before rolling forward, and pushing off... still falling but now nearly sideways… as she aimed for the far rock face. Another arm hit and one on the left leg and she was flipping head over heels, firing her grappler to briefly snag a wall and fling her forward another hundred feet. Whatever it had grabbed onto however, apparently gave away and she finished the impossible maneuver ungracefully and painfully, hitting the volcanic sand pit that she'd been aiming for with a skid and thud that splintered her helmet's plastic visor, but miraculously left no bones broken.

"PRINCESSS! KIMMM!" Shego was running towards her. _'No. Mustn't.'_ Kim thought, but it was too late.

The front half of the wall of the volcano that they'd been working on weakening gave way precisely along the scoring… not as deep as planned without the benefit of the explosives… but still enough to send half of a mountain hurtling down directly towards them!

######

Shego hadn't even had time to think. One second she'd been cutting, the next she'd been smashed into the ground as though an invisible giant had kicked her legs out from under her and then rubbed her face into the dirt for good measure. She'd managed to look up just in time to see Kim fall and her heart had almost shattered as the tiny body was slammed with incredible violence against the rock walls of the volcano again and again.

And then she'd realized that Kim wasn't just falling, she was also JUMPING! Shego was on her feet and running before the thought had finished processing. It was as if stairs had grown out of the rocky slope leading up to where she'd seen Kim go down, so sure was her footing as she sprinted up at an impossible pace. Where….

THERE!

Her Princess was lying on her side, gashed and roughed up but still unbelievably whole! And then Shego heard the horrific cracking sound… as if God had decided the Earth was a piece of wastepaper and was tearing it in two. She looked up to see the giant fissures opening above her head, saw the cracks split the mighty mountain into a hundred pieces and had just enough time to realize that there was no way she was ever going to avoid the avalanche that was about to come down on top of her.

Until the rope landed around her. No, not a rope, a length of wire. Kim's grappling cable! And by the grace of an Angel, Shego found herself pulled up into the Heavens as the entire world caved in around her and the sun was swallowed by the Gods of Darkness.

#######

"The whole North side of the island's dropping!" Wade yelled over the radio, desperately trying to receive a response from either Shego or Kim. Of course, they probably KNEW that side of the island was dropping, they were ON it!

Wade slapped himself in the face. He wasn't sure what good it would do, but he'd seen people get slapped in hundreds of movies and it always seemed to work…

And surprisingly, it did. The sharp impact of the pain pulled him out of the panic loop he'd put himself into and he could re-approach the problem with a more focused mind.

"Okay," He told the staring and totally freaked out Tweebs, "Tim, get to work with your satellites. Start looking for the tracers they swallowed. Jim, get me an update on your model and I want it five minutes ago."

The boys nodded, grateful not to have to think for themselves with the knowledge that their sister might have… no, don't go there, Wade thought, picking up his desktop mic again.

"Will, this is Wade. We have an emergency."

And though his mother usually had to drag him to church in terror, Wade was suddenly very glad that he'd learned a few prayers. He had a feeling he was going to need every one of them.

######

"Tape."

"huh? whaz..?" Shego mumbled. It was so dark… why couldn't she see?

"Tape." Kim's voice. Soft and raspy. Her Princess!

Shego couldn't see because she was lying face down and the heavy dust in the air was already cutting off most of the light. Pushing herself up on her hands and knees, though, she could see well enough to make out Kim's body lying just a few feet from hers.

"KIM!" Shego scrambled towards the most important thing in her life and was horrified to realize what Kim was saying… and why.

The front of Kim's helmet had been badly smashed and a huge crack had appeared in the clear plastic front. While Shego had been lying there for who knows how long, Kim's life-giving supply of air had been slowly venting out of her helmet. Right now the redhead was TRYING to fix it with the heavy duct tape she'd been using to seal the contacts of the detonators with, but she was obviously having trouble with the roll.

No cutter, Shego realized. This was a spare roll, the one with the built in cutting blade was somewhere down on the bottom of the valley floor, under a million tons of rubble. Where Shego would have also now been entombed had Kim not literally pulled her from the jaws of death.

"Hold on Princess," Shego soothed, pulling the remains of a badly smashed Kimmunicator from her belt. The display screen was shattered, but pushing the button Kim had shown her, the small throwing knife popped out. Spring activated. Simple beats fancy once again.

Quickly taking the roll of tape from Kim, Shego began cutting off strips and pasting them over the splintered section of the visor. A quick sideways glance showed that the tank Kim was breathing from was nearly empty. Fortunately they'd replaced their original tanks right before Kim had started scaling the Cliffside, so her reserve tank was still mostly full.

Which, the pessimists would say, meant that Kim had, at best, an hour's worth of safe air left.

Kim was saying something to her but Shego couldn't quite make it out through their doubled helmets. She leaned forward to touch the visors, but Kim held up her hand and got to her feet instead, making a bee-line for a pile of extremely fine pumice.

As Shego watched, the indomitable redhead began grabbing handfuls of the ultra-fine dust and pouring it all over herself. What the hey?

And then Shego saw it. A puff rising from a worn spot near Kim's knee! Damn clever, Princess she marveled, realizing Kim was using the talc-like powder to check for leaks the same way a cyclist would check a tire using a tub of water.

Now understanding, Shego helped Kim finish 'dusting' herself and they located two more fine leaks in addition to the first, all of which Shego fixed with the tape before they reversed positions and checked Shego's suit… which seemed to be fine. They were probably both still leaking from spots too small for the pumice to react, but the worst of the damage was temporarily stemmed.

Now Kim brought her head towards Shego's and they touched visors.

"You're okay?" Kim asked slowly and simply, negating some of the muddying effect of the helmet to helmet sound transmission.

Shego nodded, but held out the shattered Kimmunicator. No matter how you looked at it, this was bad. Without the device and it's auto-GPS function, there was no way Wade could find them, let alone contact them.

"Transmitters," Kim shook her head, miming a swallowing action.

Damn, Shego had already forgotten about those. Maybe her kitten really was psychic.

"Helicopter." Kim pointed. "Is it clear?"

"I don't know." Shego shrugged. Who could see a damn thing with all the volcanic dust and smoke that was clogging the air? If it wasn't for the eerie sidelight filtering in from the direction of the beach, it would be almost as black as the bottom of a coal mine.

"Have to head down," Kim guessed. They certainly couldn't go up from where they were and unless the Hovercraft arrived first, the Squirrel was still their best chance of getting out of here. Plus… she hated to think it after all this… but they still had a job they needed to finish.

"Yeah," Shego agreed. It was going to be a long, dangerous walk down and they were just burning air talking. "You want to lead or me?"

To her surprise, Kim smiled. "Depends on the song and which dance."

######

"It's no good," Tim swore, "There's so much rock dust and crap in the air that the sats can't see anything. It's looking…"

"Just because we can't contact her is no reason to lose hope," Wade retorted. "Will should be there in a few minutes and can conduct a visual scan. We know where they were, so he shouldn't have to look far."

"Assuming he can see anything," Tim continued morosely.

#####

Using the grappler and taking advantage of their superb balance and gymnastics skills, Shego and Kim had made far better time than they expected. They had reached the bottom of the cliff several minutes ago and now almost halfway across the debris field.

"Hold on," she bumped helmets with Kim as they passed a particularly tall rock spire.

Scampering up to the top, she peered in the direction that their ride had last been in and… YES! It was still clear! She hopped back down to tell her kitten the good news.

#######

"My God!" Anna gasped, still grabbing video automatically as they began their approach into the area where Kim and Shego had been working, and Will had to agree. If the GPS coordinates hadn't matched, he would have sworn they were in an entirely different location…. The swirling black smoke and dust was almost impossible to see through, but by the occasional flashes of lightning, he could recognize a few of the original landmarks. Most, however, now lay in the valley below and no one… no one could have survived an avalanche like that.

He must have made a sound of dismay, because Yori turned to him quickly. "Do not give up so easily, Du-san. A Yamanouchi ninja could have survived this, and both Kim-san and Shego-san are more skilled and resourceful than we."

"I certainly hope so," Will prayed.

And then his prayers were answered.

But not by God.

Spitting defiance, Satan unleashed his latest assault as the walls of the cliff began to give way again, this time finishing the job that Kim's explosives had been intended to do.

Even from this distance, inside the hovercraft, the sound was like thunder inside their heads. On the ground it would have been unimaginable.

Like dominos, the walls around the northeast rim of the crater began to collapse,

And as the walls fell, millions of gallons of molten lava began to pour in a waterfall from hell… a lavafall the size of Niagra… unleashing itself into the valley where Kim and Shego had last been seen.

#######

Kim and Shego heard it first. It was impossible not to hear it, and only the cushion of pressurized air inside their helmets kept their eardrums from being shattered.

And while they couldn't quite see exactly WHAT was happening at the far end of the valley, it wasn't hard to figure it out in general as the energy of the collapse spread out like another earthquake, and then the jet black darkness they'd been surrounded by was suddenly illuminated from the west by a hellish jack-o-lantern orange.

Well, at least they didn't have to worry about doing THAT anymore.

"Chopper or cliff?" Kim helmet bumped, screaming to be heard over the nightmare cacophony.

Shego calculated the distance, the probable flow. If the lava made it this far, the Squirrel would be directly in its path and she had no idea how long it would take to get there. At least they knew how long it would take to get back to the cliff… where they would both die from lack of air within thirty minutes.

"Chopper," Shego decided and they began to move, even faster than they had before. The ground was shaking again now and the orange light was getting brighter. The sound behind them was like a thousand freight trains in liquid form, a river of molten rock pouring at terrifying speed through the valley.

Kim pointed towards a huge outcropping of rocks they'd passed on the way in. Emergency high ground in case they didn't make the Squirrel…

And they weren't going to, Shego realized. She could see the glow behind them coalescing into a horizontal band of yellow as the lava filled ancient streambeds in its suicidal rush to the sea.

As one, they ran for the rock outcrop.

#####

"For God's sake, tell me that you've got something on them," Will screamed over the intercom.

"I… We…" Wade stammered on the small holoscreen. "We've got nothing. The Kimmunicator must be dead and we can't read the trackers through all that interference."

"The TRACKERS!" Anna yelled in a terrified 'eureka' moment! "SHIT!"

Instantly the photographer was on the floor of the hovercraft, searching through her backpack until she pulled out the E. mechanism.

"Will, can you take us in low over the valley? Do a back and forth… A…" What was the word?

"Sweep?" Will puzzled. Yori, who'd worked with the same trackers before, made the connection!

"YES! Do as she asks, Du-san! Jim-chan and Tim-chan's device can see the trackers through anything!"

"I love you ladies," Will told the others as he pulled the hovercraft around. "Now hold on, those thermals are going to be rough!"

######

"Fuck!" Shego swore. They'd made it to the rock outcrop just in time to see the Squirrel go up in a ball of flame. But that wasn't why she was swearing. There was another, HIGHER outcrop just thirty feet away, but the river of lava had already cut them off. Worse, it was rising. At the current rate they had maybe two or three minutes. But they were trapped! There was no way out!

#####

Kim's mind was back in overdrive. This couldn't be the end. She knew it couldn't. But what was their way out? Think Possible think. Normally you fought fire with water, but sometimes you fought fire with…

"SHEGO!" She grabbed her love and helmet bumped as tightly as she could.

"We have to try it again. We HAVE to! That's the way!"

#####

Shego looked at Kim like she'd gone insane. She'd been contemplating trying to leap to a few small rocks that still stood above the lava, but even as she watched, the last rock… the last stepping stone… just floated away, swept up by the magma.

And what Kim was suggesting was insane. They'd argued over it repeatedly.

"_You've hit me with your burning hands before, and I've been untouched afterwards," _Kim had insisted. _ "I've seen you hold things while burning. Hell, your clothes don't burn when you're doing a full body. And when you're burning, you can reach into a fireplace, put your hand in boiling water." _

Was Kim right, Shego wondered. Was the thing she'd feared so much really so simple?

_"All that says that your plasma isn't really fire, it's some kind of extension of you," _She heard Kim repeat in her memory. _"If you can throw it, project it, why can't you extend it?"_

But what other choice did they have now? Shego knew her limits. How hot her fire got. And she knew that it wasn't really quite fire, but plasma, and that when it was activated her temperature limit went up to the level of her plasma's exterior heat.

But how hot was lava?

And she knew that she could regenerate. The fuckers at the lab had cut off one of her toes once, just to prove the point.

But if the lava was hotter than her plasma, how long would it take to burn down to…?

"Shego! It's alright! This can't be where we end!" Kim was emphatic. "It won't be!"

Shego blinked at Kim. Was this why she'd kept wanting to experiment… that way? To turn it into a game? Keep her mind from focusing on it…?

Now there was no time to think about it. They were dead otherwise.

"Hold on Princess!" Shego yelled, grabbing the love of her life and sweeping her up into her arms

"I love you," was all Kim said. It was all she had to say. All she needed to say. _'I trust you with my life, now and always,' _was underwritten in the subscript in terms so explicit that no lawyer or devil could ever weasel out of or attempt to break them.

And most important of all was the certainty in Kim's eyes. She knew. She KNEW.

"I love you too," Shego cemented the bond for all eternity.

And then she set them both ablaze and stepped into the lava.


	27. Chapter 27

_Man, this has been one heck of a set of episodes… I mean chapters. So many of the major threads I've been weaving into the background are finally paying out, and I hope you enjoy the result. It WILL be a few days, at least, before the next update, as I'll be traveling and working, but this story's not ending now… in fact, were' just about to go into the big final stretch! Enjoy!. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Will Du, Yori, Rufus, Wade Load, the Tweebs, Monique and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

#####

"They… they're gone?" Ron's voice choked off as he stared at the grim face on his Kimmunicator.

"I didn't say that," Wade replied softly, though in his heart, he knew that the shake in his voice had betrayed the thoughts his words had refused to utter. "I said that we haven't been able to find them yet. The satellite intel is so full of garbage we can't be sure of anything and Will's only done one full circuit of the lava field."

"But…" And the young genius forced himself to go on. "What we… what YOU have to keep in mind right now is that they did their job. Even with the earthquake, that wall would never have come down if they hadn't already weakened it… And because they did, the lava is flowing away from the lab, just like we'd planned."

'_Which meant what had happened was my fault as much as any fault in the Earth's,' _Wade thought bitterly, but he'd never say that. Not in front of his two co-planners, who were dealing with the probable death of their sister… very poorly.

Instead he said "You're clear to go the rest of the way in Ron. They've cleared the way for us, let's not let their sac… their efforts have been in vain."

"Right." Ron blinked back, forcing the moisture in his eyes to stay at bay. It would have to stay there until he'd finished the task Kim had given him. There were too many other lives still at risk. Lives HE had to save. "Understood."

Ron turned off the Kimmunicator and returned to the mission. He'd do his friend proud, and that meant there was no time to cry. Not now.

"The lava's moving away from the lab," He announced to the others, and he kept his voice strong enough that none of them… except, possibly for Cyn, knew what had really happened. He had to stay strong for the others. That was the job of a leader.

And he'd learned how to lead from the very best.

But oh, how he envied the mole rat hidden in his pocket, who was already taking refuge in the solace of tears.

#####

What was the proverb…? The journey of a lifetime begins with a single step?

Shego wasn't sure if that was it, but it certainly made sense.

So she kept moving forward. One step at a time.

The molten rock should have burned her to the bone… and then vaporized the bones. But she just kept walking. She had no choice. The precious cargo in her arms was depending on her, and she wouldn't… COULDN'T fail her.

And the fact that she DID keep moving proved that her Princess had been right. Shego HAD burned hotter than this before… and burned herself beyond all recognition. And that memory had left her terrified of her own potential. Afraid to ever test her own boundaries again.

But she COULD melt metal. And once she'd even burned a hole through a Lowardian Titanium alloy hand restraint… the melting point of which, Kim had pointed out, was a staggering 3135°F (1725°C). And she'd done that without burning her hands.

To save Kim.

By comparison, the lava was a paltry 2000°F (1250°C) at most.

Shego didn't know whether to laugh or cry. All that time, all those years, concentrating on the destructive aspect of her power. Her ability to destroy.

When she should have been embracing the power she'd been given to save.

Her life-giving plasma wrapped around both of them in a perfect emerald cocoon. Oh, it would have been uncomfortably hot without the Vulcan suits they were already wearing. The burning air would have seared their lungs… certainly her precious Princess's… without the contained air of their helmets. They would have suffocated just from the toxic gases. But with the cooling green embrace of her mantle wrapped on top of the hi-tech suits…

She just had to keep her balance. Make sure not to step in a hole, or trip. As heavy as the lava was, she didn't know what would happen if they became submerged. So she'd fallen back on skills learned for other applications like tightrope walking, and the methodology of Hung Gar to maintain the most stable footing at all times. Even with the massive push of millions of tons of rock behind her, it was still a liquid that followed the path of least resistance and therefore passed around her. It was eerily like walking through a large, very thick, very warm river of…

Oatmeal?

Yes, Oatmeal! The really thick, really heavy crappy oatmeal Hego used to make for her and her brothers on the mornings when it was his turn to cook, with just a wisp of sulfur added for taste. It was a ridiculous image, but that was the closest analogy she could come up with. And a ridiculous image suited her, the ridiculous woman who had lived half her life in terror of a blessing, seeing only death and destruction in a power that could save so many.

Because Kim had been right about that as well. Shego COULD extend her power around someone else. She'd been doing it unconsciously for years and never making the connection, stupid bitch that she was. She'd just had to mentally wrap her brain around it. To stop being afraid.

And, ultimately, it had taken having something so priceless to save that she HAD to do it to push her into making the final leap.

But that step had been taken. She knew the truth.

And while she had always believed that she would have dared to storm the gates of Hell itself to save her princess…

Looking at the green eyes of the woman in her arms, she now knew she could actually do it.

#####

It was unbelievable, Kim thought in wonderment.

Despite the blazing heat, Kim felt a chill of awe run up and down her spine as she viewed a world awash in a rippling of sea of emerald, green and jade. This was how Shego saw the world! She was inside Shego's fire!

Her love had finally realized her true potential. With her strength and her courage, she'd already been the greatest woman that Kim had ever known. But she'd been crippled by what had happened to her. Had based her beliefs in what she could do on what she had done while still barely more than a child. While still under the aftereffects of a drug. While terrified and convinced that she was about to die alone. But even as she had denied them, Shego's abilities had continued to grow secretly within her, manifesting slowly in ways only a handful had even theorized might be possible. Which was, ironically, the name of the singular person who had actually suspected that those powers had already evolved to the next level. Not from some psychic hunch, but simple observation.

It hadn't made sense any other way. Shego HAD to be holding back. Otherwise how could she have done some of the things she'd done? But what Kim hadn't realized until they'd become truly intimate, had become mates in mind as well as body, was that Shego didn't know she was holding back. She'd used her powers because she had to, not because she wanted to, because those powers were the only thing she'd thought she had to offer. She'd never really liked them. Accepted them. Did anything more than what was absolutely necessary.

Except when doing things like fighting certain idiot redheads. Or rescuing them from alien invaders.

Now, with this, she became unmatched. No fire could ever stop her again. And there was no fire from which she could not protect another.

Provided they managed to get out of here before their air ran out, that is.

Kim knew her suit, despite the emergency repairs, had been leaking air like a sieve. And when Shego's plasma was running, she burned oxygen at a staggering rate. Given that the lava surrounding them was already stealing most of what was in the air, most of what was now being burned had to be coming from her Vulcan suit's already dangerously low supply. Whether it transmitted through the suit somehow to burn outside, or if it was simply the green hero's comet-fueled metabolism that consumed the life giving element was a matter for later study… and considering the horrors of Shego's childhood, Kim knew that any test, no matter how voluntary, was always going to have painful associations they would still have to overcome.

But they would overcome them. Together.

Taking care not to throw her Dragon off balance with a sudden shift of weight, Kim bent slowly forward and read Shego's airgauge. Maybe… maybe six to eight minutes at the rate she was burning. Or about two more than Kim had.

"You're almost out of air," Kim warned, carefully headbumping Shego's visor. "We need to get to high ground."

"I'm trying Kitten," Shego sighed. "But this is a hellacious current and I can't make any headway towards the cliffs."

Kim nodded. She couldn't fault the woman for not being able to do the impossible. Or at least the even more impossible than normal, given that they were wading through a lake of molten lava that now must cover several square miles, in an inverted world where the only light came from the ground and the sky was a molten black mass of smoke layered under now hidden storm swept skies. Even if someone was looking for them, they'd have to be almost on top of…

Wait. Of course they'd be looking for them. And that would mean Will… which meant.

She wanted to laugh, but Shego would think she'd gone insane.

It was so SIMPLE!

#####

"Are you getting anything yet?" Will demanded for the 19th time as they completed their third circle.

"Do you really think I wouldn't let you know?" Anna snapped. She tried to reel it back in, knew the GJ man was just exhibiting the same nerves that she felt, that flying back and forth around the edges of the great lava field was only making the three of them more frustrated.

Because there were only so many places that Kim and Shego could have gone. And as the lava continued to flow out and rise, that number of places was shrinking. That's why they'd been focusing on the outer edges of the newly formed lava lake. The places where there was still a chance. According to Wade, there was NOTHING left inside the lake itself. All land above the lava was gone. Which meant…

"Will? Can you hear me?"

Will, Anna and Yori gasped as one as the voice seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was broken and it was filled with static, but there was only one voice in the world that sounded like that!

"Can anyone hear me?" The voice asked again, and if there wasn't any doubt as to its origin… besides the Shegofone on the dash of the hovercraft, the next words removed all doubt.

"Hey Guys? What's the sitch?"

"JESUS Kim!" Will swore, and Will NEVER swore! "Where in the hell are you?"

######

"Uh… we're not really sure, Will," Kim admitted, attempting to fine-tune her link to the Shegofone by flexing her cheek and hugging its namesake as she spoke to let her know she'd done it! Worries about tumors be damned, she was SO having a full transmitter suite put in! And getting a lot more backup Kimmuicnators as well. "We're somewhere in the middle of the lake of lava. I think we've been walking around in a circle, so Hell might not be that far off."

"Uh… did you just say _walking_?" Will spoke inside her head

"Yes, but that's not important. Well, it is, but what's more important is that if I can reach you via Wade's super-bluetooth, you're probably not more than a kilometer or two away. Do you have some way of identifying our trackers?"

"We have indeed," Anna's voice chimed in inside her skull, almost delirious with relief.

"Okay, Kim grinned. "Will, you should be able to get some kind of directionality just by moving the hovercraft and running a signal comp on the Shegofone. Its function button… uh… D7 unless Shego changed it… you didn't did…" Shego was shaking her head 'no.' "No, she didn't. That'll be rough, but the trackers should be spot on. As for the rest… Yori, I think this is going to be your department. Please tell me you've got all your ninja equipment with you."

"What kind of ninja would I be if I did not?" The Japanese girl's voice half laughed/half scowled. It was a damn party in Kim's head!

"That's good," Kim replied. "Because we're about to run out of air and you'll need to work fast."

#######

Will's jaw was hanging open as he brought the Hovercraft in as close as he could. If he hadn't seen it, he never would have believed it.

Shego was standing.. just STANDING… in the middle of the lava flow, holding Kim in her arms. Unmoving. Unyielding. It was like she was a statue…

Well, actually, he realized, it was a zen meditation pose, as the green woman was apparently doing everything she could to conserve their last bits of air.

"Unbelievable," Anna whispered, remembering to grab occasional hi-resolution stills as she caught the incredible images. She'd hit record the second her camera's E. attachment had engaged and she hadn't bothered to let it up since. And the amazing imagery she was capturing was only a bonus! Her camera. Her CAMERA had been instrumental in finding them! She'd never look through this viewfinder the same way again… Heck, she might even start taking it to church!

"I never knew Shego was that strong," Will agreed, still processing the fact that it was molten ROCK she was standing in, resisting the flow of.

"A little closer if you will, Will-san!" Yori ordered from the now open hatch. "Unlike Shego-san, I am not fireproof."

Anna continued documenting the amazing event as the young ninja, wearing a full Vulcan suit, somehow still managed to look nimble as she finished rigging the cables and leaped from the hatch. The first of two sets of cables caught her in mid-fall, approximately twenty feet above the flowing magma.

"She's down," Kim's voice came… a little breathy… over the Shegofone… "Will, it looks like you'll need to move about thirty feet to starboard and maybe sixty forward."

"Got it," Will replied with an amused smile despite the fact that they were nowhere near out of trouble… but the fact that Kim Possible was micro-directing her own rescue from the rescue vehicle was… about as impossible as anything else the woman did.

"Coming forward slow," He added as he engaged the forward gravs at almost minimal.

At the same time Yori was preparing for her own delicate maneuver, looking more like a strange silver spider than a beautiful woman as she wrapped multiple loops of ropes and wires about herself. While it was theoretically possible that Shego could add Yori to her protective envelope while already enflamed, that was a theory they'd rather not test when the cost of failure would be, as Shego put it, "really burning her ass." So instead, Yori was going to loop the most heat-resistant cable they had about the two lava-bound women as rapidly as she could, then Will would pull them up quickly with the hovercraft. Once actually out of the lava and at a height where the heat wasn't quite so intense, Shego would flame off and Yori would have to re-secure both of them with a second cable in case the first had been damaged by the extreme heat, and… at the same time… be ready to quickly cut off the bottom half of Shego's suit in case any red-hot magma was still attached. It wasn't an ideal plan under any circumstances. There were so many ifs and maybes involved that every action had to have a dozen contingency actions ready in case it failed.

But it WAS a plan that took full advantage of… would in fact be impossible without… the Japanese girl's tremendous skill and training. And Yori took it as a point of honor that Kim was trusting their lives to her. She would not fail.

"She's almost here… she's almost… two feet to PORT! Perfect!" Kim exulted, physically forcing herself not to yell and deafen those on the other side of the Shegofone as the ninja dropped almost perfectly on top of them! Or, for that matter, to use up her last air with salvation in sight. She was breathing mostly the air in her suit now… she could smell the antiperspirant she'd applied just a few hours earlier doing its damnedest, and it actually did smell nice. Heat-activated indeed! Maybe she could get a deal to do a product endorsement… donate the proceeds to charity… and… Oh shit, her mind was wandering… what was she…?

Like liquid lightning, Yori was on them, hanging upside down only feet from the lava as her flying hands cast out multiple webs. The heavy heat-resistant cable locked around Shego's waist, sizzling as it hit the green fire, but the loop closed like a noose and locked.

"LIFT!" Kim commanded! "LIFT!" The three of them flew into the sky!

No time to cheer, no time to do anything but move as fast as possible (hah!) It was insane! Yori had worked this fast before, but never while flying through the sky, blasted by wind!

"Shego-san!" Yori shouted! Already the heavy cable was melting!

"I'm off!" Shego screamed as her fire went out. "Get the ropes on!"

Following the command blindly, Yori began to spin, enveloping the two gaijin females with layer upon layer of her ninja silk. She could distantly smell something burning, but Shego was right. If the cable went, she and Kim-san would be far more badly charred.

"Secure!" Kim wheezed, her eyes drooping as hypoxia rapidly took its toll! "Get her suit!"

Yori's knives flew into action, piercing the super-strong fabric and cutting it as easily as tofu! They'd been lucky, the lava on the suit was only on the feet and had not yet burned through, although no doubt the green gaijin was feeling the so-called 'hotfoot,' as Ron called it.

And then the bottom of the suit was away, fluttering off into the distance like a strange silver swan… a living piece of origami, in fact!

"Thank God!" Shego laughed! "Talk about hot pants! And Yori, you can take mine off anytime!"

"Hey!" Kim protested, weakly, but she was laughing too, inside. They were safe! They were all SAFE! "Will! Winch us up!"

######

"THEY'RE SAFE!" Wade screamed and, over the Kimmunicator, Ron could hear the Tweebs shouting the same thing behind him! "THEY'RE SAFE!"

"Huway!" Rufus screamed, slipping into mole-rat pigeon in his excitement!

All the angst and pain that had still remained in the Monkey Master after first hearing that Kim and Shego had been located finally evaporated. And the timing couldn't be better. With only a thousand feet to go, he had to concentrate on the mission at hand, which meant getting Murphy and Stephens to work on communicating with the lab, making sure everyone in there would be ready for immediate evacuation.

Because the one fear they still had was the pressure. Not the pressure of the situation, but the pressure of the atmosphere. It was very probable that all of the weight on the lab would have slowly caused the barometric pressure inside the facility to rise… in fact, that air pressure might be all that was actually keeping the lab's structure intact. If they cracked into the lab too quickly, it the whole thing could collapse like a metal balloon. And if it did that, the roof would probably split, the rocks above that would shift and the lava that was still above… though there was now far less than there had been… would pour through.

And when you were at one end of a five thousand foot tunnel, the idea of having to outrace molten lava as gravity forced it down through the same tube was spectacularly unappealing.

Fortunately, they had a solution for that, but it would require careful timing. He had to be right on the other side of the entry when it was breached, and everyone in the lab had to be ready to move as quickly as they could. No stopping to pick up data or silly nonsense like that. If the roof held, they could come back later, once the lava had cooled.

No, all of the scientists, including the five of his group who he hadn't yet sent back.. the three on the Tunnel Digger and the two-man Morse team… were going to have to race at top speed back to the far end of the escape route they'd bored while they trusted to Monkey Powers to once again hold the submerged buildings intact until the structure's pressure had leveled, the lab's walls being far more likely to give during an explosive decompression rather than under a stable one.

With any luck, he'd convince Cyn to evacuate with the scientists as well, but who knew what the woman was bound to do? Still, he'd been glad for her presence. She'd been the calmest of any of them during the earthquake and her lack of being rattled had kept all of the male nerves around her in check. That and the fact that she never stopped working, asking technical questions of the various individuals whenever something visually exciting was going on. He'd thought Kim was crazy in sending her here at first but… well, if he hadn't already had Yori, Ron had to admit he could have developed a pretty heavy crush on the pretty blonde photographer.

'_Jeez,'_ he suddenly thought abstractly, _'I wonder if I have some kind of Gaydar in reverse? Why else would I keep being so attracted to lesbians?'_

######

Ron was amazing, Cyn had to admit. In fact, were it not for the fact that she was currently involved… and that RON was involved with one of the deadliest women she'd ever met… she might have even been tempted to give penises a try again. Because, well… damn!

The Monkey Powers holding up the roof during the earthquake had been nothing shot of amazing… Anna would never believe the footage she had captured… but the young man's control under a situation that would have leveled most people had been staggering. She could only guess how much pain he was feeling during the horrible period when they'd all thought Kim and Shego were dead. She'd seen what it had done to the little mole rat... and Cyn, who had only know the pair for an instant compared to Ron, had been left devastated. Thank the Lord she'd had her work to fall back on. Keeping focused on the job had driven her through and Ron had done the same, but with a far greater task.

She wondered if the self-described 'nice Jewish boy' had any idea how much like a real action-hero he'd seemed, projecting an aura of confidence and authority when all the volunteers had been on the edge of fleeing in panic. Probably not. He was a lot like Kim that way. He didn't TRY to be anything. He simply was.

And then there'd been that last final little touch. When they'd finally bored through to the lab and realized that whoever might be on the other side of the floor might be vaporized if they just went in with the Tunnel Digger, and that the combination of rock and acoustic flooring made it impossible to locate exactly where the people in Lab 1 were located by simply pounding on the ceiling of the tunnel. A more precise method of getting through had been required… and out of nowhere, Ron had provided one.

With a shrugged "Well, this has worked before," he had but his hands out in front of him and appeared to meditate.

And then a goddamned SWORD, a giant glowing sword had appeared in his hands… Cyn couldn't wait to go back and look at that again, because she'd seen it and still didn't believe it… and he'd then used the sword to cut through the stone like…

Well, actually, he'd looked rather like her father cutting the Christmas turkey, because he'd done the cuts in exactly the way a chef… which Ron was… would do it.

After that, the Monkey Powers again. Fortunately unneeded. The lab seemed stable, which meant all of the valuable data could be retrieved later, once things had settled down a bit geologically speaking. But Ron had kept the support up, just in case, until the last researcher was far down the tunnel ahead of them, then he and Cyn, the last two out, had slowly proceeded back down the tunnel and into the light.

Yeah… if she didn't already have her Lieutenant… and he his Ninja…

Although, come to think of it, when she'd been helping Yori put on here dominatrix gear, the Japanese girl HAD had a sort of 'interested' look in her eyes. She wondered if maybe…?

No. No, better not to chance it.

For now, anyway, she thought with a smirk.

######

Abrianna Stein… Anna, to her friends… sat on the volcanic shore of Māhanga Riri and stared across the water at the incredible spectacle, occasionally snapping off the odd shot as a nice gush of fire or explosion of steam made an interesting pattern. She'd already captured so many images that it seemed unlikely they'd ever all be used, but it was a perfect excuse to sit and watch the epic drama nature had set into play, with molten earth and fire waging war against the sea.

So far, the sea seemed to be winning. And the wind, perhaps irritated that it had only been invited at the last minute, had shown up to drive most of the clouds and smoke in the other direction. Compared to earlier, Rahi's slow collapse into the lesser of the two twins was quite a bit less terrifying than it had been just six hours ago.

But that didn't mean that it wasn't still great entertainment, and Anna had a sneaking suspicion that all of the rest of her life would be measured against this day. She'd seen the forces of nature unleash their greatest fury from a distance few ever managed and survived. She'd seen bravery, daring and love unparalleled, as dozens of insignificant humans banded together to save their friends, lovers and brethren from a horrifying fate. And, much to her surprise, those humans had included herself and her friend Cyn. She, Anna Stein, a woman who watched the world through a camera lens, who had been a note-taker and commentator, never a participant, her entire life, had stepped up in a way she would never have believed she could.

She had been a part of history. Real history. Though this would be but the first of many great adventures, it WAS the first for a bold new venture in human enterprise, and as the first, it would forever be remembered as the day Global Rescue met its first baptism by fire. Quite literally, as it had happened.

And she, like those she was proud to call her friends… prouder than she could ever hope to adequately explain to anyone who hadn't been there… would forever be remembered for her small part of it.

Not bad for a funny looking Jewish girl from Hoboken, New Jersey. Not bad at all.

The final chapters of the story were still being written, of course. But the reporters who had arrived with what those worthies had _expected_ to be the _first_ wave of rescue ships and planes, only to find that it was all over except for the cleanup, were welcome to that task. Anna had already promised a few choice clips to all the networks and newsfeeds, and the more exclusive footage… well, there was a lot she could do with that. But for some reason, she suspected the proceeds would go into a certain charity that had started this whole thing. It seemed fitting.

But before she could even thing about that step, there was a little editing to do. Some things that the world, perhaps, wasn't meant to see quite yet. The details of some of Global Rescue's equipment, for example. And, especially, the myriad new abilities that had been added to the Kimmunicators, the Shegofone and the soon to be unveiled Ron-Coms, Yori-talkies and Du-Calls. The holograms, in particular, were something Kim and Doctor Director were keen on keeping a secret for now.

And then there were some private moments… like what had happened immediately AFTER Kim, Shego and Yori had been winched aboard the hovercraft… where some discretion might be in order.

The three women had all hit the floor together in hopeless snarl of tangled ropes, wires and cables. Yes somehow, Shego had pulled herself free almost instantly, grabbing Kim and pulling her helmet off with such strength that the metal coupling simply snapped.

Kim's face had been dazed, in the first stages of oxygen deprivation, and it was only then that the others realized the impossible woman had been out of air for several minutes. That she'd actually still been calling out orders with lungs filled with pure carbon dioxide.

But that was a problem that Shego had an instant solution for. Grabbing the redhead in her arms, she'd immediately begun administering mouth to mouth, and it was only a few seconds before it seemed that the treatment had suddenly started going both ways.

Right there, in the middle of the hovercraft floor, the two women's mouths had begun devouring each other, tongues wrapping as they savored the sweetness of their escape and future… not to mention the taste of each other.

"Um… guys?" Anna asked, forgetting to turn off the camera. "Kim? Shego?"

"Are they okay?" Will had asked from his pilot's seat. Still occupied with getting the hovercraft out of the danger zone, he was amazingly ignorant of what was transpiring just a few feet behind him.

"Yes, Kim-san, are you well?" Yori stammered. Like Anna, she was a bit taken aback by the… eagerness the two women were exhibiting.

"Oh, give us a break, will you guys?" Shego had groaned.

"Yeah," A very pleased sounding Kim had added. "I think we may have just gotten engaged."

######

"So, um, about that footage," Kim asked. She, Shego and Cyn had joined Anna a while ago to watch Rahi's elemental breakdown, and they'd all been sitting in companionable silence. Will was helping coordinate the evacuation of the Volcanolab people to the main rescue ship, the RNZN Richard Taylor. And Ron and Yori? They had disappeared, nominally to do 'some exploring,' although Rufus had been seen in the hall outside of the temporary visitors quarters of Volcanolab 2, and SOMEONE had provided him with a huge dish of cheese dip.

"You didn't DELETE it, did you?" Kim finally completed her question.

"No," Anna replied with a smile. "But I did move it to its own memory card."

"Good," Shego grinned, her head improbably lolling on Kim's shoulder. "Though I imagine that OTHER picture was probably a better one to give to the press corps."

Anna nodded. It had been the greatest picture of her life, and even if all she had done was snap the shutter, it was one to be proud of:

Two women. One in the other's arms, the other standing impossibly in a sea of molten rock. And against a field of crimson lava, the green glow that had saved both. By the end of the week, she knew it would have been the cover image for hundreds… perhaps thousands… of newspapers and magazines around the world. It was simply that breathtaking, even before the staggering true story behind it was told.

_Red flame. Emerald fire._ That was the name she'd given it.

And that would be the name for the new calendar. How could it be anything else?

Which did bring up the one disappointment of the day.

"It is a shame, though," Anna sighed.

"What is?" Kim wondered, idly stroking Shego's arm as the green woman snuggled into her.

"That," Anna nodded sadly towards the wall of fire on the other side of the strait, where the remaining greenery was slowly being converted into kindling by the advancing lava. From their perspective, it seemed as if the crystal blue-green ocean was somehow giving birth to the flames, which in turn was birthing back smoke that coalesced into the raw and jagged peaks of the volcano reborn. "That's the most incredible photographic backdrop I've ever seen and in a few hours it will be gone forever."

"And we didn't think to bring any of the costumes or anything," Cyn lamented back with… was that a hint of a wink, Kim wondered? "Just the cameras…"

Kim looked at Shego.

And Shego looked at Kim.

And as the volcano across the bay erupted in a new fresh burst of pyrotechnic fury, Kim threw caution to the wind.

"What the hell." It took her just a few seconds and then her clothes were falling to the jet black volcanic sand.

Naked as the day she was born, but clothed in an armor of absolute confidence and trust, Kim began the same slow motion kata that had she had once used to invite her chosen partner into the ultimate dance. There was no doubt, no fear in her eyes as she beckoned, in both love and challenge, to the woman who would forever be the burning sea to her searing fire, the dragon to her fire-princess, bound eternally by the most ancient and powerful magic of all.

"Come on Shego," She dared, "Let's make some photos no one will ever forget!"

And with a mad laugh of abandon, Shego joined her!

"_Holy crap!"_ Anna thought, as she began firing off after shot after shot of the whirling red and green Goddesses who seemed to dance across a blazing sky in defiance of gravity! Against a field of orange and black, above an ocean of blue, theirs was a perfect synergy that blended both passion and combat into something inexplicably more… the ultimate expression of opposites becoming one, of a total being more than the sum of its parts. And as Anna captured each new unbelievable image, she knew that no one was ever going to believe that such a scene could possibly be real.

But it was!

OMG, as Monique would say, it really was Possible!


	28. Chapter 28

_First –about the above average number of typos and errata on ep. 27… I've gone back and fixed some of the worst of that, including the inversion of the temperature conversion, but over the next week I'll try to get it into better shape. Frankly, I feel a lot of the chapters I've put up really need to get one last polish/revision and I WILL do that when the story is finished. I do my own proofing and, in the case of 27, I was half-asleep when I did that one… but as there were people screaming to know what happened, I felt I had to get it out asap. ( And somehow, I thought, posting a two word chapter like "They Died." might not go over well. __ ) I also SHOULD apologize for some truly terrible puns, and "four scorched and severed limbs aglow" may rank with my worst. But I really liked it, so I'm not going to say sorry and, in fact, I just typed it again. Bwa hah ha ha! It makes me happy. Some wonderful comments in the reviews since 27 went up. Both Ffordesoon and kgs-wy commented on the way Kim elevates the supporting cast, even ones who were shown in a less elegant light in the original series. To me, this was always one of the greatest strengths of the original series… that not only were many of the villains and antagonists not completely evil, but that they were actually acting in ways that belied much more complex motivations; while KP herself, as well as her core team, were all portrayed as having their own character flaws. Coming from a channel that so often seems to glorify the adolescent fantasy of being the center of all attention to the exclusion of all else… Hannah Montana, The Cheetah girls, the Jonas Brothers, etc.,… to see such a human character who considered herself 'just a basic average girl' as the lead is part of what I think made this amazing series so special; and as a consistent theme of the show was that exposure to Kim DID make others step up to her level without anyone ever getting preachy, I've tried to work that in as best as I can. I think this is part of why the KiGo dynamic is so popular, because Shego is so clearly a character in evolution and a "Kim that could have been but went wrong;" and a huge portion of ATCOTS comes from my ruminations on why she went the way she did and the completion of her redemption. Even on the original series she was easily the most complex character and I refuse to believe that on a show that was as consistently well-written as Kim Possible, that the ultimate intent as she evolved wasn't for her to be the 'dark mirror' in which to view her 'Princess.' (Oooo, how's that for a blatant Disney analogy?) Personally, I'd have preferred not to thrust them together so quickly, but ATCOTS was already sprawling out of control, length-wise, and sex sells, especially hot lesbian sex when it comes to fan-fics; and I'm a mercenary bastard at heart. I've tried to drop hints that there are a lot of conversations that we're NOT hearing, just to indicate that there's more going on here than just an incredible case of adrenaline-fueled lust… by the first time they have dinner with the folks, Kim already knows a good portion of Shego's backstory… which I confess to making as horrifying as I could imagine… and that will come into play as we move towards the inevitable climax. Two final comments here, as this has already become a ridiculously long 'note,' the first being that the protective suits/oxygen masks/running out of air portion of Ch. 27 is a very deliberate nod to Failte200's ALONE, TOGETHER, which is the fan-fic that broke the dam and prompted me to submit a few pieces of my own… any community that could produce something like THAT was worth sneaking in a little extra writing on the side. A,T is more graphic sexually than ATCOTS, but the basic themes are very similar and if you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it as one of the best justifications for the existence of fan-fiction. Lastly, a question to kpjfn: a nude picture of WHO? I fear the illustration "Duff Killigan Unkilted - Bagpipes,Haggis and All" that may arrive unexpectedly to destroy my retinas. Hot pictures of KP,Shego, hot cosplayers undressed as Kim or Shego, all fine. Thx. And now, back to the inevitable __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Will Du, Yori, Rufus, Wade Load, the Tweebs, Monique and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 28

#####

"Urgh" Shego grumbled, fidgeting once again with the unfamiliar outfit that she just couldn't get to hang right… fringe, what had possessed her to go with fringe? Finally giving up, she turned to the stunning redhead beside her with a look of concern. "This could get incredibly awkward, you know? A lot of these people don't know about us yet."

'This' was the impromptu dinner they'd thrown together in the wake of the volcano mission. For some reason… okay, the reasons were obvious… emotions had run a bit intense as the mission had come to a close, and the dramatic pictures and videos that were hitting the world news were having strong effects on those closest to the mission team. As a result, she and Kim had quickly come to the conclusion that it was important to reassure everyone tangentially involved that the mission's little bumps were only that; the sort of 'hiccups' that were inevitable when something had to be thrown together too quickly to properly prepare. Yes, it had been scary, but things had come out fine in the end, hadn't they?

The complication was that everyone seemed to have had the same idea at the same time, and within a few hours of returning to Middleton late that evening, a convoluted web of cross invitations had resulted in Kim and Shego having the choice of picking between eight different get-togethers for the following night. Or, as they had decided would be the most politically correct choice, to counter by issuing a global invite of their own that would bring everyone together… well, the most critical everyones, anyway. The invites from Tara and Hope's family were sweet, but Kim knew they would accept a polite decline on the grounds that they had already accepted one from family, and the one from the aspiring politician… they already had an invite that trumped that, and if the man had any future career potential he'd acknowledge that… though they had taken advantage of the opening to arrange for a meeting early next week.

In any case, this was why Kim and Shego were dressed up in their best, why a set of caterers from Chez Chouteau would be arriving within minutes and why the mostly-empty lair currently had a half dozen folding tables laid out end to end in the still open main area… Chouteau's party room had already been booked but they'd made an exception on their two-week minimum advance policy for catering when they'd been informed of the guest list. It wasn't going to be cheap or deductible, but both women felt that something extra special was in order, and it was infinitely less costly on a personal level than having to explain to the Stoppables, the Loads, Monique's family, etc., that they were already committed at a time when everyone was feeling a little emotionally shell-shocked. In retrospect, Kim and Shego had almost had an easier time than the others, because while they had known that there had been a possibility of their dying at several points, it was something that they had both simply learned to live with, and neither of them had had to endure the thought that one of the others of their group had died.

"I know," Kim sighed, looking as comfortable in her dark tuxedo-style top and black slacks as Shego felt the opposite in her short white dress. "But realistically, what else could we do? I'm sure as hell not going to pretend we're just good friends, and you can't say YOU can bring your family but YOU can't, when our families are what made us what we are. We owe them."

"I'll make sure to remind you of that when we go to visit MY family," Shego retorted. "THAT'LL be interesting."

"But…" Kim looked confused. "I thought you said Hego's gay too?"

"And in complete denial. Despite a huge collection of 'confiscated' pornography and regular 'surveillance' runs to the red light district where we all know he's checking out the man-sausage." The green woman shrugged. "I don't even want to know what Wego's into these days and I'm not going to ask, but when I was still there…"

For some reason Kim seemed to intuit exactly where her partner was going. "Oh, you are so not going to say what I think you're going to say... are you?"

"'Fraid so. I mean if both of him are still him, it's basically the ultimate form of masturbation. Do you want to know how we found out?

"No!" Kim blanched. " Ewww no with a double wrongsick! You win! Your family is officially a lot weirder than mine."

"Heh."

"Was that a modest chuckle of gloating?" Kim looked over suspiciously. "Because it seemed especially modest for you."

"No, actually it just suddenly struck me as funny that Go City has a red light district. Shouldn't it be the green light district?"

"Depends on what kind of green light, sizzle pants," Kim smirked with a look that started a little sizzle of its own fizzing in a portion of Shego's anatomy. "I could go for a little green light action right about now."

"I swear to God Princess," Shego favored her companion a perhaps not entirely convincing look of long-suffering indulgence. "How did I ever get the impression that you were such an innocent?"

"Because it's true," Amazingly, Kim still somehow managed to affect the sugar wouldn't melt in her mouth appearance, even though Shego had now melted beneath that tongue and those lips repeatedly in ways she'd never have imagined a few months ago. "No arrests, no convictions… "

"Except in Kālpanika Rāstra," Shego lawyered, trying to keep her thoughts on the straight and narrow, and sort of managing the narrow.

"Oh yeah," The redhead frowned with a thoughtful scowl. "Remind me to ask Dr. Director if GJ Legal has heard back on that yet. I can't believe it's taking so long."

"That's because you've never had to deal with a judicial system from the other side before. And somebody DID complicate matters by insisting that a second name be submitted for clearing at the same time." The green woman's face softened a touch. "I mean, I appreciate the gesture kitten, but I'm used to being wanted."

"That's good." Kim's arm snaked around Shego's waist, pulling her close. "Because you ARE wanted. Seriously, think we have enough time for a quick…?"

"No! And this dress wrinkles like crazy, so be careful. It's going to be weird enough for you to be coming out to Ron and Wade's family without it being obvious that we were just shagging like minks."

"What happened to the deliciously evil woman I thought I was getting involved with?" Kim sighed.

Shego stuck out her tongue, knowing in the back of her head that the provocation might backfire on her. "You turned her good. Damned short-sighted of you, wasn't it?"

"Then I guess I'll have to be evil…" Kim didn't threaten. Her hands were already making good on her intent and Shego, who'd worn cat suits for most of her adult life, was about to learn one of the perils… and major attractions… of cute little dresses.

"Kimberly Anne Possible, get your hands out of my underwear. We're about to have dinner."

Kim's response began as a heartstoppingly smoldering grin that was already way too close to breaking down Shego's resistance… and the follow-up of a soft, magical caress of a small hand across the lower half of the green woman's right buttock certainly wasn't helping one bit. On the edge of a meltdown, Shego realized she had to break it off or the caterers would have to wait.

"Come on Kim, please. You know these people and I don't and I really want to make a good impression before I have to sit down and eat with them. And if you make one pun about eating I'll… I'll…"

"Mm hmm?" The kitten was purring in her ear.

"Be horny all through dinner."

"I like you that way."

"Horny?"

A small pink tongue flicked out and drew her earlobe in for a nibble. "For dinner."

"Gah…" Outwitted again. _'Danger,'_ Shego thought desperately. '_Mayday, Ex-Supervillain in distress and she… or somebody close to her… is going down…' _

Fortunately the sound of the door buzzer announced that the caterers had arrived and a complete crash and burn was avoided. The most dangerous woman in the world had just been rescued by a small army of men and women armed only with chafing dishes.

God, she thought as she showed her saviors unsuspecting where to set up, the lair's kitchen already being equipped with its own steam tables, who knew being the good girl was so hard?

On the other hand… once the guests had left, she wouldn't have to be good at all. In fact, she planned on being downright wicked.

#####

"My… it's very… large." Mrs. Stoppable gaped as she looked around the huge main area of the Global Rescue compound. "And you two are actually living here… uh… together?"

Kim kept her face calm, maintaining her carefully cultivated smile… she'd suspected that Ron's mother had had a question like that in mind. It had been patently obvious when she'd stepped away from the small group of early arrivals that Kim and Shego were leading on a quick tour, ie: the elder Stoppables, the Loads and Mayor Lucre, who was accompanied by his official parole officer for the evening and fellow guest, Doctor Director. It was a bit early, but Kim and Shego had decided how they wanted to handle this, so she opted to answer both the obvious and the implied question now.

"Yes," She told the woman on whose floor she'd played since pre-K and who'd once expected to eventually become her mother-in-law. "It's really rough right now, but we've got a nice suite we'll be sharing for the first couple of years. The way things look, we'll have to be on base pretty much around the clock. There will be other living quarters too, though, as we add on, but they'll all be sectioned off like private apartments for the permanent staff, as well as a set of general quarters for teams waiting on call. Once Global Rescue starts really hopping it'll be like a little military installation here."

And if that wasn't specific enough.

"With the obvious omission of 'Don't ask, Don't tell,'" Kim blushed.

Oops. Now she'd embarrassed Ron's mom. "Um, yes, Kimberly. I was… well, I knew you and Ron had gone back to being just friends, but I hadn't realized…"

"Nor had I, until recently," Kim admitted. "Ron did though. And Yori's…"

"Absolutely wonderful," Mrs. Stoppable agreed, glad to leap to a more comfortable topic. "She and Hana are already bonding like they've known each other all their lives."

"Good," Kim nodded, as she steered the woman back towards the main group. "Ron deserves the best, and Yori adores him. Someday she'll give you two amazingly cute grandchildren."

Kim stopped herself before she specified their gender. And age separation. And that they'd play with her and Shego's….

Okay, what the hell? That was a LOT more than a hunch.

Fortunately, Mrs. Stoppable took it for polite chatter and no one else was close enough to notice her fumble… they were all looking with polite interest at the computer systems Wade and the Tweebs were in the middle of installing.

"A rather accurate prediction there, Kim," Doctor Director spoke softly in her ear.

Correction, one person HAD noticed. And the one-eyed woman had an oddly satisfied look on her face.

"Oh, just a…"

"Hunch?" Betty didn't seem to need to hear the rest of the sentence to know what Kim had intended to say. "Like suddenly deciding you need to subject yourself to oral torture while in route to a major emergency?"

"Ah… Will told you about that?"

"No, you did, dear. I receive a copy of your report briefs, remember?

"Oh. Yeah. Well…"

"Don't worry about it Kim," Betty reassured her. "There'll be a time when we need to discuss this. But not now. It's something that should wait until you're surer about what's going on. Trust me. I know."

Kim blinked at the 'I know.' How could anyone know? But Dr. Director's knowing look led into something far more stunning.

"A boy and a girl," Betty smiled. "Separated by 19 months? Is that what you thought?"

Kim felt a weird… it wasn't a shudder… it was like a RIPPLE going through her body. She stared at Dr. Director in shock.

"Don't worry, Ms. Possible. When the time comes, come have a chat." And now the director of Global Justice allowed herself a feral, feline grin. "I'd say you'd be surprised by how much we have in common… but by then, I don't think you will be."

Kim could only nod dumbly as the Director took her leave without another word, returning to 'looking' at the tech gear that Shego was still explaining to the male members of the party.

'_Okay,'_ Kim thought, shaken. _'That was major league freaky-deeky and SO the Drama…."_

Just when she thought her life couldn't get any weirder, it found yet another way to mess with her head.

######

To Kim's relief, most of the rest of the evening went a little more smoothly. Her family arrived as a group a few minutes later, and while the Twee… no, she really needed to start calling them by name now, Jim and Tim… were oddly clingy, things weren't as emotionally overwrought as she'd feared. Of course, her mother and father had never known that brief period her brothers had, but she'd had time to absorb what Shego had been trying to say the other day. The sacrifice her family made in letting her lead her life the way she chose to was something she'd never be able to adequately repay.

Monique and her folks, the Rochons, arrived a few minutes later, followed by Anna, who'd arrived alone bearing a portfolio, and Cyn, who'd brought the mysterious Lieutenant Ellis they'd heard hints about… a tall, dark skinned brunette, it turned out that her first name was Gailana but she preferred to go by her last name. Kim liked her immediately… not surprising since she was a police officer and Kim and cops usually got along famously… and made a mental note to make a beeline back to the two women once dinner had moved on to the 'after' portion of the evening. Just going over the internet had opened her eyes to an entirely different side of Middleton that she really knew nothing about and… well, at this point she felt like she could confide about certain issues with Cyn, and Ellis had the advantage of knowing a bit more about being gay in her hometown than Kim had ever anticipated having to know.

Will showed up a few minutes later, also stag, though he'd originally said he'd be bringing a date. Apparently it had fallen through at the last minute, as he was dressed to the nines in an elegant tailored suit that had to have cost a month of his GJ wages and smelling of an extremely expensive cologne named after an exclusive Brazilian designer. Ron, Yori and Rufus just barely made it before the appetizers started to hit, having been at Smarty Mart on some kind of secret mission. When Kim pressed on the details, her three friends had all looked at each other and just giggled. Hmmm. Some kind of conspiracy was brewing.

Things seemed to be proceeding smoothly and she worked the room, making introductions where necessary. Her parents had never met Mayor Lucre, for example, and she left them and Ron's father in an involved discussion about federal funding for advanced research projects. Introducing Shego to the Rochons went a bit less awkwardly than her earlier introductions to the Stoppables and the Loads had gone. For one thing, Kim was getting a lot more comfortable with saying the words 'my girlfriend and partner' and Monique's parents didn't have quite as much familiarity with the Jade beauty as did Ron's and Wade's. Monique herself, on the other hand, just watched the whole thing with the attitude of someone who'd found themselves in an alternate universe.

"I'm sorry Kim," her friend apologized to them later. "It's just that you've… adapted to this so fast. Two weeks ago you didn't even know you were gay, and now you're in a serious relationship and introducing Shego as your S.O."

"Significant oth…" Kim began.

"I know that one, Princess," Shego sighed.

"Don't get me wrong," Monique continued. "You two look wonderful together. I haven't seen this one," She jerked a thumb towards her high school chum, "this happy in years, and you…" Monique took in Shego's atypical garb, a short fringe dress in white and tan "look phenomenal. That dress is amazing, BTW."

"You think?" Shego worried. "I'm trying to find my feminine… well, I guess my girlie side. I never got to dress like this growing up, so it's a little weird."

"But you like it don't you?" Monique pressed.

"Yeah. I do. And I like what it does to Kimzilla here as well. She was…"

"TMI," Monique giggled at Kim's panicked expression. "I'm happy for you but I really don't want to know what you do in that respect, okay?"

######

Of course, after handling everything with such aplomb, Monique had to go and put her foot in it later. Right between the salad and main course. Anna had just mentioned that they'd re-scheduled a pick-up calendar shoot for the next week… she was going to have to fly to L.A. to talk to some producers about the footage she and Cyn had shot.

"Good," Monique had laughed. "I'd hate to think all those costume designs I came up with would never be used at all."

"Hold on, I'm confused," Anne Possible, who was directly across from Monique, had caught that and she was every bit as sharp as her deer-in-the-headlights daughter. "You DID do the photo shoot? But I thought…?"

Way to go Monique. She could see Kim giving her a martyred expression; so obviously she was the ONLY one who knew about the impromptu photoshoot on Riri.

"So… Kimberly," Kim's mother was looking at her expectantly. "Exactly what WERE you wearing?"

"Um," Kim flushed, and Monique noted that Shego was also turning a deeper color. "You know how grandma always says you're never fully dressed without a smile?"

"Kimberly!"

"Mrs… Doctor Possible," Anna interjected.

"Anne please," the Doctor was nothing if not polite.

"Perhaps you should see the pictures we've chosen so far. I believe you'll find that they're not what you might think."

"I… I suppose I should. I'm sorry for flying off the handle, Ms. Stein. It's just that, well, you ARE my little girl, Kim."

Kim had recovered quickly; her initial reaction more a reaction to her mother's reaction than anything else. "I know mom, and believe me, if it wasn't for the contract that Shego, Anna and I have, I wouldn't have. But we do have full control and… honestly. I really like what we've done thus far."

Kim favored Anna and Cyn with a smile, then turned a more intimate one to Shego. "Honestly Mom, they're beautiful."

The other majorly interested party at the table had been suspiciously silent thus far, and Anne quickly called her husband on it.

"Dear, you're being awfully quiet."

"Ermm… perhaps because there's nothing I can say that won't result in me getting in trouble with someone?" Mr. Dr. Possible admitted, then followed with a heavy sigh. "To be honest, dear, I've thought about this a lot since the LAST calendar came out. If Kim wants to do it… she's an adult now. An extraordinarily responsible adult, as it happens. I trust her not to do anything that would embarrass us or herself. And actually, I've had a few of the people at the office mention how the first calendar had affected their own daughters in a positive way. Frankly, I'd rather she did something that she felt reflected her own values rather than participate in… say… beauty contests."

"You're a very exceptional man, Dr. Possible," Anna replied admiringly.

"No," Kim's father returned with a smile. "I have a very exceptional daughter. And it's James by the way."

"Anna. And I'd planned on just showing them to Kim, Shego and Mayor Lucre, but I have the proofs for the first pictures that are on our final choices list. Maybe after dinner…?"

"While Wade and the twins are otherwise occupied," Kim agreed with a quick look at Shego for approval. "I think it's time people see what we've been up to."

######

Mayor Frugal Lucre was a happy man. He'd known that putting the combination of Kim Possible and Shego together was going to make for some spectacular chemistry… it hadn't been hard at all to tell by the comments both women had made to him that there was more going on there than met the eye… but what had actually happened wasn't chemistry; it was alchemy, pure and simple. He'd had high expectations already, but now he knew in his gut that this calendar was actually going to be even bigger than the first, and there would definitely be several more calendars after that. He took the broad view and considered the picture now front-paging a thousand papers across the world as advance advertising, and its inclusion in the final calendar somehow was all but preordained, but the pièce de résistance, as far as he was concerned, was the image destined for the center spread.

The same picture had captivated Anne as well. It had been taken towards the end of the day, as the sun in the already darkened sky was beginning to set, and rather than an action piece, it was a much simpler composition.

Kim and Shego, standing on the edge of the beach, wrapped in each other's arms, their green eyes locked together as they shared a private moment that Anna had somehow captured without invading. In the growing dusk, their figures would have been cast into complete silhouettes but for two things. First, the exploding volcano in the background, shattering the otherwise black sea and sky with a giant triangle of fire and a thousand orange highlights on the sea in between, but even more startling… so visually stunning that it took Anne's breath away, was the glowing green fire that enveloped both of the two young lovers like an ectoplasmic halo… It actually took a moment or two of looking at the spectacular beauty to realize that the two women were totally nude, the placement of their hands, arms and the fire itself, combining with the angling of their bodies to be a nude study that was barely nude at all. Instead, one's eye ran over the interplay of muscles, how the two forms meshed so perfectly that they appeared to have been sculpted from one piece. It was exquisite. Divine. And unbelievably emotional.

Anna's title for the piece summed it up, amazingly, in a single word:

Destiny.

######

"Well, that didn't go so bad," Kim admitted as they returned to their personal quarters after the last of the guests and caterers had been shooed out. "Not more than, what, eleven or twelve really awkward moments?"

Stepping immediately into her side of the Hollywood bath, she quickly stripped off her suit-top and trousers and hung them on the wooden hanger. She'd been sweating so nervously that they would have to go to the dry cleaners asap, but she'd at least managed not to spill anything on them. The shirt came off quickly as well, but went to a wire hanger, and then, down to just a pair of green satin panties, she walked back into the bedroom to retrieve the shoes she'd kicked off coming in.

And stopped cold.

She'd WONDERED what the package she'd seen Cyn and Lt. Ellis slipping Shego had contained.

Now she knew.

The covers and sheets had been pulled off their bed and replaced by one of the special flame smothering blankets used by firemen. That tied in nicely with the fire extinguisher that had been placed on her bed-stand.

But what really took her breath away was Shego.

The green woman wasn't nude… well, not COMPLETELY.

Assuming, of course, that a Middleton Fire Department helmet counted as an article of clothing.

"Kimberly Anne Possible," the ex-villainess grinned. "You have been a VERY bad girl."

######

The man who'd placed the bounty on Kim Possible looked at the picture on the front of the local paper and growled.

In his business, it was important to keep his people focused. To make them think that the job they did had value and meaning. That it was worth the risks associated with the work he provided. And it was also important to dabble in some slight of hand, it being far better to focus anger at an outside party.

To that end, with this latest development, he'd have to do some serious rethinking on what he'd have to offer to make it even worth considering, as it was now something only a complete and total idiot would attempt.

Kim Possible and Shego, together? And looking at the picture, it would seem the rumors he'd started hearing were indeed true. This wasn't just a professional relationship. This was a permanent alliance that was going to seriously screw up the plans of a lot of supervillains… and if supervillains started canceling their plans, there would be no more money going into HIS pockets.

He thought and made a decision. The price was going to have to go up, WAY up, and if someone actually tried it, he would be glad to pay.

Business was business, Jack Hench thought, as he picked up the phone to call the man who would call the man who would set the axe in motion.

Nothing got in the way of his business. Not even the two most dangerous women in the world.


	29. Chapter 29

_Okay, first of all, the next to last section is very much why the M is on this story. Second, no insult to players of a certain game is intended… I played it myself, this just struck me as an interesting concept. Next, answering some of the main questions I've been asked about 28, NO! THE PHOTO SHOOT IS NOT OVER! Anna's just taking a break to handle the sale of the video footage of the volcano rescue, which is time dated material. At this point I think you'd have to use a crowbar to get her out of Middleton. Hench is not PUTTING out a bounty on Kim, he's already had one and is upping it. Remember the $10 mil offer previously mentioned? If Junior's reduced to using money orders from the convenience store, he's not likely to be offering eight figure bounties. More details in this very chapter! Regarding the proceeds of the photo shoot: it's all for charity. That said, thanks for all the great reviews and PMs, and I'll let this note end with the inevitable __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Wade Load, Monique, Big Daddy Brotherson, Jack Hench and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 29

######

"And you're really okay with your daughter posing nude?" Dr. Possible, the Mrs. asked. She'd had to wait until they were alone, which, since the boys were going to spend the night at Wade's… poor Mrs. Load… meant that she'd given it until they were out of the plain dirt lot that currently served Global Rescue's parking needs to turn the truth ray on her husband.

"You saw the pictures, dear… I only saw the two that Kim said were 'Dad safe.' But I didn't get the impression that you felt they were anything but art. Not… well, you know." Dr. Possible, the Mr., looked back at his wife from behind the safety of the wheel. "And Monique and the others all seemed to feel the same way. Honestly Anne, it seems to me that your issues aren't really with the pictures themselves."

"I…" Anne began, then slumped weakly back in her seat. He was right, of course. The pictures had been nothing short of brilliant. Anne had always been an attractive woman and intellectually she'd known her daughter took after her, but Anna Stein's picture for last year's calendar had stunned Anne by revealing that little Kimi-cub had somehow become one of the most beautiful women in the world. If People magazine said it, it had to be true, right?

And these new pictures… it was as if she'd sat down to make a doodle on a phone pad and looked down to see she'd painted the roof of the Sistine Chapel instead. Kim was… magnificent was the only word she could even come up with that seemed to do her justice. And Shego was every bit as exquisite. Which was a problem because beautiful women with brains often became targets.

"I don't have a problem with the pictures," She explained softly. "I have a problem with how she's going to be seen, between this and the…"

"Ah…" James did his best Sigmund Freud. "So, now it comes out."

"No, it was our daughter who came out." Anne sighed. "And no, I wouldn't deny her what she has with Shego if I could. It's just that, as much as Kim has done for everyone else on this planet, she deserves the right to be left alone… and I know that there are people who are going to try to use her honesty and life choices against her."

"The operative word there, hun, is 'try.'" James Possible gave his wife his most confident smile. "I think anyone who tries to take on our Kimmie is going to find they've grabbed a tiger by the tail."

#####

The in-between walked into the crowded restaurant cautiously. Some might think he was being paid incredibly well for what amounted to a messenger position, but it was a rare person who would be willing to take a job that could end up with not one, but two, of the most dangerous men alive deciding that he was a link they could no longer afford to keep. And the fact that the in-between had been dying from a particularly nasty form of cancer that was held in check only by doses of an insanely expensive and quite illegal drug, the sole remaining source of which on the planet was Jack Hench, gave them a gun that was forever loaded to his head.

But that was also, in effect, his job security as well. The old pirate's adage, dead men tell no tales, still held true in the modern world of high tech crime and corruption… so who better to trust the ultimate secrets to than a walking dead man? Given his target's skills, he didn't dare prepare any 'posthumous' messages, as the first he would learn of their discovery would be when the chemicals that kept his bones and flesh from devouring themselves failed to arrive. If, indeed, his clients were willing to wait that long.

The manager of the restaurant waved to the in-between. A short, stocky man of some middle-eastern descent, he knew the tall gaunt figure by face but not name and chose to keep it that way. The in-between didn't know why the manager worked for the target of his message, but whatever the answer was, it was no doubt as morbidly interesting as his own relationship with Jack Hench. Although given his second master's predilections, it was probably something that he had done that he wanted no one to ever know about that kept him chained here. That, and the fact that, like the in-between, he knew that his services were not so valuable as to make him indispensable. Quite the opposite, really.

"He is in the third room to the back. Knock five and two," the manager informed him. As always, the managers' attempts to appear calm and in control failed to reach his eyes. He was a man living in terror, and, as he always left by the back exit, the in-between had a gut feeling that this would be the last time he saw the man.

"Shave and a haircut again, then," The in-between confirmed as he passed back into the tiny stairway hidden behind door of the manager's desk… a door that would normally appear to be no more than a closet. The code was almost always shave and a haircut. At least for him. It was possible that there were different codes for every single person the man he was meeting had relations with. In fact, it was almost a certainty.

By this point the in-between had reached the bottom of the stairs. The modern walls of the building upstairs gave way to the ancient clay brick of the rooms below. Once this had been part of a necropolis, a city of the dead, and he knew that the bones and skulls that had laid in rest in shelves along these walls were now deposited in a large pit that had been dug at the far end of the short hall. He'd once gone to look, back when he still had vestiges of normal human traits like curiosity. Now he only had purpose.

He had arrived at the designated door. A modern prefab model set in the frame of what had obviously once been a crypt. Reaching up, he carefully rapped out five rhythmic knocks and two slower.

The door opened.

A monster of a man stood inside, perhaps six foot nine, with a build that would make an American-style football player look like a simpering momma's boy, a face built more of gristle than flesh and, most tellingly, a pair of ultra-sound proof earphones held securely to his head by a complex bondage device that could only be removed by a key. Those headphones were the monster's own lifeline: he couldn't reveal what he hadn't heard, and his employer didn't care for employees who started to traffic in his own business.

"I was wondering when he would send you," the enormously fat man sitting on the pillow smiled at the in-between. It was a cold and empty smile, the same with which an already sated vulture might view yet another dead body in the middle of a plague, but the motioning gesture to the pillow across from his obese form was clear enough.

Big Daddy Brotherson, the greatest information broker in the known universe, was willing to talk. He was wearing, as it happened, the exact same Hawaiian shirt that Ron Stoppable had worn on his recent trip to the volcanic twins, albeit in a much, much larger size. He was also, unfortunately, not wearing pants, an affectation Brotherson had taken to after a metal button on a pair of custom made 501s had suddenly parted with its parent fabric at such velocity that his client of the time had nearly lost an eye.

The in-between kneeled as indicated. He was in the presence of royalty, in a sense, and if nothing else, the spirits of the dead who had once rested in the sepulchers now filled with Wing-Dongs and other snack cakes might appreciate the gesture.

"This concerns…" He began.

"Possible?" Brotherson cut him off. "Why look so surprised? What else have we ever spoken of that would merit such an unscheduled visit? Especially given this." Brotherson's eyes flicked down to the neatly folded stacks of newspapers around him. All but one bore the exact same picture on the cover. Possible and Shego in the volcano. The one odd paper out featured almost the same image, but Batboy had been added. Brotherson never discounted any possible source of information.

"Yes," the in-between replied. "My employer wishes to tell you to raise the ante."

THAT surprised Brotherson. In fact, had the multiple ripples of flesh that covered his chin not turned most of the sound into a croak, the in-between would swear the man had just gasped in horror.

"Your employer is insane."

Although he had believed that for several years, the in-between chose not to venture into such dangerous conversation. "As I believe you are aware, the nature of my position does not leave me free to make such judgments."

"Yesssss…." Brotherson shifted nervously. This was a fool's game, but he was trapped into a given set of moves. "And how much was he thinking of raising it?"

"Five…"The in-between began and Brotherson began to relax. "Hundred Million."

Now Brotherson wasn't gasping, he was grasping his chest and looking profoundly distressed. So much so that the bodyguard, who up until this point had stood passively in the background looking specifically at nothing, suddenly produced a portable defibrillator and, stepping directly behind Brotherson, reached down, parted the leaves of the Hawaiian shirt and applied the metal plates directly to a wide expanse of pasty flesh already scarred by many such previous treatments.

After a moment, Brotherson came back around enough to continue the conversation, if that's what it now was. It was really more of a ramble.

"Does he have any idea what this could cause?" Brotherson worried out loud. "We'd agreed to use Possible as the focus because we'd thought she'd be both the most vulnerable and the one who'd leave us the least exposed. This," he again motioned to the newspapers, "Changes everything."

"We were already completely wrong about the girl. Her contacts were actually MORE powerful than Global Justice's, because they were all 100% reliable; and between her father's scientific friends, Stoppable's monkey powers and, most especially, Wade Load's incomparable skills, she had all the bases covered, technical, mystical and informational, to add to her own physical prowess. Why does Hench think NO one was ever able to stop her? Because they weren't trying?"

"And now, now that she's tied up with SHEGO," the human toad flapped his flabby arms wildly, "AND allied directly with GLOBAL JUSTICE, NOW he wants to actually pull the trigger on this insane plan?"

Brotherson paused to wipe his sweat-soaked face with a greasy palm. "The idea was to put up an offer that would attract the next generation of evil leadership; find the go-getters who would be willing to take on an incredibly difficult task like taking out an A-class threat just to prove they could do it. The money was a joke; it wasn't even enough to cover expenses. It was just to seed an idea and see where sprouts came up. The same reason we stepped up the activity on the Hate Sites."

Because, Brotherson thought, Hench and I are in a dying business. If there are no new supervillains, what need is there for the people who supply those villains? So like drug dealers, they had sat out to create new clients by enticing them with a new, cheap gateway drug… which in the case of a wannabe supervillain meant a quick buck and instant fame.

$10 million for the head of Kim Possible had seemed like the perfect hook. She was just a kid, right? All by herself?

But it hadn't worked out that way. The damned girl just got better and better. She'd already put a good portion of Henchco's best customers in prison, and sent a steady series of henchmen to the hospital. It had gotten to the point that any job that was Possible-possible… a PP job for short… required triple time as a minimum just to fill the slots! And then her 'bumbling' sidekick had revealed himself to be able to drop-kick a spaceship into orbit and she'd actually REFORMED two of the great hopes of the current crop of villains. Well, Drakken hadn't been such a terrible loss, but everyone had known that if the ex-hero had ever actually tried, Shego was the one villain who most likely could have really conquered the entire planet. And then Frugal Lucre had gone legit as well. That man would never have been a decent customer, but it was an ugly trend that Brotherson could see continuing. And the fact that not even the AAA-list seemed to be able to do more than put Possible in the hospital for a few days, while she was consistently putting them in prison, had definitely kept the real up and comers far away. In fact, there just seemed to be a general shortage of up and comers period these days.

Maybe… Maybe that's what Hench had in mind. That if Possible wasn't taken out soon, there wouldn't be any more up and comers period.

But it was still idiocy.

As a boy, Brotherson's already enormously gaining girth had sent him down the path of games and puzzles that had ultimately led him to becoming the master of hidden knowledge, a journey that had begun after first experiencing TRUE power in the form of controlling life, death and resurrection. Yes, Big Daddy Brotherson had been a dungeonmaster, and in times of stress he still reverted to that early persona and way of thinking.

In the great pantheon of evil, Hench and Brotherson were demons… not the ultimate princes of darkness, but definitely among the greatest of the aiders and abetters. But there were things that even demons fear: Dragons, which Shego was most definitely, were not to be trifled with; and a horde of anything in sufficient quantity, like orcs, was always a threat, which was how Brotherson viewed Hench's own employees, Gemini's WEE and the legion of GJ agents. Game fodder, for the most part, yet throw enough of them at a target and you might eventually overwhelm it. But Possible was even more terrifying than that. She was a goddamn PALADIN, the only one currently in the game besides Betty Director herself. Possible didn't just think the forces of good and right were behind her, she knew it, and she had the devil's own gift of acquiring whatever she needed whenever she needed it.

And the scariest part of all was that she was just starting to come into her own. Brotherson had researched Possible intensely over the last several years, and had become firmly convinced that, like Shego, she hadn't been living up to her full potential. The girl had been far too fixated on living a 'normal' life, of going to school and having friends. And to do that, she'd been gaming the system. Brotherson had been stunned at first to realize that Possible should, by all rights, already have finished college, that she'd intentionally held herself at a normal pace in school when she could have flown through it as fast as her brothers were now doing. According to his stooges at Cal-tech, Harvard and Johns Hopkins… all three of which were negotiating simultaneously to create a program just for her… she'd essentially already had much of the knowledge and only lacked turning in the requisite reports and research papers to earn the first set of diplomas. It irritated Brotherson, because it meant she was as smart as he was and didn't lord it over others, as if it wasn't the most important thing in the universe. And it terrified him.

It terrified him because Kim Possible was out of high school now and had moved out of slacker mode. Because, instead of moving directly into college and giving evil another few years of coasting, she'd gone into overgear. He had the reports: by herself, BY HERSELF, she'd taken out over 65 of Dementor's men, including the Professor, in less than an hour after going in to his last lair UNARMED. More frightening, in this recent dustup in Kālpanika Rāstra, she'd demonstrated that she could, and would, use lethal force if sufficiently threatened, and that she apparently had an excellent knowledge of firearms, a fact that she'd somehow managed to conceal from the rest of the world including Brotherson. And reading between the lines, it was obvious now that one of the two "GJ agents" sent to retrieve her had actually been Shego.

Which, coupled with reports he'd been able to gather regarding what had happened with the Lowardians, meant that this 'new' partnership the volcano pictures and the formation of Global Rescue had announced wasn't as new as everyone else thought. The facts went through the bloated, fleshy abacus that Brotherson used for a brain, and while he had no experience of sex himself, he'd long ago trained himself to understand the physical tells and subtle signs. Priceless little bits of information that, when added up, led inevitably to the conclusion that Shego and Possible weren't just working together; they had mated.

And if there's nothing more dangerous than a lioness protecting her cubs or mate, what did that mean when it was two lionesses that were bound? Let alone a Paladin and a Dragon? To attempt to tackle that pair, for any price, would be suicide. It would take an army to take them down; a literal army given the resources now at their command. Posting a half-billion dollar reward on their combined heads might indeed draw out the new talent Hench and Brotherson had sought, but it would also draw out every morals-deficient fool on the planet. And even though Brotherson imagined that they would succeed in the end, simply by virtue of the numbers, the vast majority of them might as well be fed into a meat grinder. It would gut the resources of evil for a dozen years.

And yet… and yet Brotherson couldn't back out. He was in too deep. Hench had been brilliant in making Brotherson his partner… what better way to keep the real people behind something a secret than to make the master information broker a co-conspirator? To have the ONLY source of information about the offer be a 'rumor' that in truth was originated, not merely spread, by the rumormonger supreme? Anyone who was serious would inevitably end up having to come to Brotherson to learn more, and that was the trap he had missed. Granted, he'd intentionally blown off the obvious wanna-bes, like that oafish Kālpanikan Colonel, but there had been a few legitimate inquiries, and if this offer went up, he WOULD have to communicate the information to any number of people who might then steer the authorities back in his direction. Or worse yet, Possible and Shego themselves.

But if Hench went public with the word that Brotherson had reneged on an agreement, Brotherson's reputation was destroyed anyway. He might be able to hurt Hench badly on the way down, but given the company Hench dealt with, that would only serve to shorten whatever post evil career Big Daddy might have briefly enjoyed.

"Alright," He finally announced to the still waiting in-between. "I'll put the word out. But this is the last time I work with Hench. We're done."

"I'll inform him of that," the in-between nodded gravely. He'd been expecting that from Brotherson's reactions. He'd never seen the fat man even worried, but now he seemed to see his own ghost waiting for him.

"No need," Brotherson replied, making a strange little hand gesture. "We have a previously agreed upon signal."

And that's when the in-between felt two powerful hands grip his neck from behind. It was almost the last thing he felt, the final experience being the sensation of his skull being literally pulled off the top of his neck like cork from a champagne bottle.

He had been both right and wrong, he thought as his final moments of consciousness faded. Right, in that it would be the last time he would see the poor manager outside, and wrong in that he would be leaving. He would never leave this building again, and his body was destined to join the pile of bones at the bottom of the pit at the end of the hall.

Funny how he'd never realized that before.

Brotherson watched absentmindedly as his bodyguard plucked up the in-between's body and took it away for disposal. He would spread the word, as promised. And then he would make preparations for a quick retreat to one of his most secret bunkers.

Where he, Big Daddy Brotherson, would pray. He would call on the Gods of Darkness he had served ever since discovering them on a pamphlet stuck inside a used copy of an old Monster Manual, and he would beg them. Plead with them.

To send someone capable of beating Kim Possible before she found out what he had done.

#####

"YES! YESSS! I've finally beaten you!" The words ripped out of Shego's throat with a raw and primal passion as her entire body quivered with excitement! "FINALLY!"

"Um, gg…. You have?" Kim's voice came in ragged, gurgling waves, the sounds rippling out between the throws of her own massive orgasm. Despite the fire… REAL fire… that repeatedly enveloped her body, she was in more danger of drowning, as every inch of her was literally awash with the fluid evidence of her passion, sweat and more than a bit of saliva and… other things, and her red hair was so drenched and slathered with perspiration that she might have just come back from a swim rather than the most incredible three hours of sex she'd ever had in her chronologically short but extraordinarily intense and vigorous experience. "How…. OH GOD!... How… do you…. figure…?"

"I've come twenty times," Shego groaned, going for twenty one. "But I've given you at least three more."

"And that's me LOSING?" Kim laughed, grabbing the gloating ex-villain's head and pulling it up so that she could see more than just her eyes. An impossibly nubile flip and her face was suddenly pressed, upside-down, against Shego's, and she tasted herself as she devoured the equally drenched she-dragon's talented mouth with her own. "Then try and beat me again you damned wicked woman! Just try it!"

"But…" She whispered as she began to work her way down Shego's chest, leaving a trail of small bites inter-spaced with kisses. "I'm not going down without a fight…"

"Oh you're going down Possible…" Shego gasped, looking up in the mirror to see that she, too, could sometimes predict the future… especially when it was already happening.

Shego's moan of ecstasy was so deep it tore a hole into another dimension of experience, and as her Princess deftly plunged into the cave, seeking to slay the Dragon yet one more time, the fire of her passion flared more intensely than ever before, escalating in a series of incinerating bursts that drove both of them inexorably forwards towards a hitherto undreamed of level of explosive rapture.

"YES!" She screamed "YES!" and another haze of burning green glory enveloped them.

#######

In the end, they never were sure exactly who "lost." Although, based on structural damage, it was probably the new sheets, which even underneath the flame suppressing blanket had still picked up an astonishing variety of scorch marks… many of them quite identifiable silhouettes of either Kim or Shego. The headboard had suffered a bit of damage as well, with a few burned handprints that they agreed gave it 'character.'

What Kim did know, as her eyes fluttered open hours later to take in the gorgeous green body lying half beside and half on top of her own, was that there was never going to be another person like Shego. Could never be another person like Shego. And the sight of the woman who had once been her enemy, now snuggling close to her not for warmth… the room was still a bit on the overheated side… but simply the comfort of her touch, was one of the most profound things she had ever experienced. Kim had loved before, but she had never NEEDED the way she needed Shego.

She had to admit, in the very back of her mind, that there were some things that she was afraid of, that she had been putting off dealing with. Monique might think Kim was assimilating all of this with unusual speed, but the redhead was well aware that there were going to be some rough patches and cruel words ahead. She knew that there were those who wouldn't understand what it was that she and Shego shared. Talking with Cyn and Ellis had confirmed that while Middleton was more progressive than many cities, it was hardly a paradise for the LGBT community. Things had improved noticeably after a gay-bashing city councilman had been voted out of office several years ago, but there was still some political backwash sloshing around that seemed to have come from the middle ages, and on a state level…

But, so be it. Shego had already survived far worse and miraculously come back whole, and Kim was nothing if not enduring. Although actually, the term she'd most often heard applied to her was "harder to kill than a fucking cockroach."

And now, knowing what others like them must have experienced, she found herself wanting to get more involved in the one arena that she had always tried to avoid. She didn't really want to, and if there was any other way she'd take it in a heartbeat… but it wasn't right that some people should be denied what made them happy, just because of someone else's preconceived notions of what was and wasn't right. And since fate had put her in this strange position… a wonderful one, yes, but very strange compared to what she'd ever anticipated for her life… she knew that she couldn't give less than 100% in doing everything in her power to make the kind of future she wanted for herself and Shego possible.

Shego Possible… that combination of words brought a delighted feeling of wonderment, a sensation of warmth that spread from her heart and throughout her body… and most especially to her lips.

Lips she gently placed on the forehead of the sleeping woman who now meant everything to her. And for whom she would give everything in return.

Barely stirring in her sleep, Shego smiled.

Kim Possible rarely cried, but the tears that ran down her cheeks now flowed freely. She'd never known such happiness was even possible, that a human heart could actually hold so much emotion.

But it could. And hers did.

"Forever and always," she promised silently. "Whatever it takes."


	30. Chapter 30

_Just a warning that we're in building mode again, thrill junkies, so be advised that this is just the lead in to the biggest and wildest action piece yet. How crazy? Let's just say that Mad Possum's thought in his review is an EXTREME case of understatement. The pieces are still sliding into place, but the clock is ticking. Thanks for all the great reviews and comments, and we'll be back with the next installment quite soon. In the meantime, here's __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Monique, Big Daddy Brotherson, Jack Hench, Senor Senior Jr, Bonnie Rockwaller and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 30

######

Hench received Brotherson's signal loud and clear. It wasn't completely unexpected: the information broker had always been a jellyfish of a man, and the resemblance extended far beyond mere physical appearance. If anything, his current complete and total lack of something resembling a spine was completely in character and inevitable. But while Hench would have to watch out for the man's stinging tentacles in the future, he had no fear that the blob would fail to follow through on his half of this particular bargain.

Unfortunately, without establishing a new in-between… assuming that was even doable at this point… that meant that the ball would drop in the three days they'd previously agreed upon as standard timing. And what Hench hadn't counted on was how long it was going to take to actually transfer all of the funds. The problem was that, in order to keep his name and involvement hidden, he would have to use hundreds of blind drops and dozens of completely unrelated teams, all transporting very small portions of the final total until they incrementally made their way to the final broker, where they had to be ready for the final payoff to be made before Brotherson dropped the bomb. It could have been much simpler… a simple charge on his Plutonium card… but he'd always had a weird, itchy feeling concerning the so-called foolproof security systems the card's maker promised. Likewise, while the entity responsible for holding and dispensing the funds had a rock solid reputation and had never ratted out a client, there was always a first time. With so much at stake, Hench preferred not to let anyone see his face until after the deed was done, when all would be equally complicit.

But, as a result, the extreme levels which Hench was taking to protect his own anonymity would force the brokering entity to protect itself as well. Hench's much vaunted reputation for always fulfilling a contract was worth nothing if he hid himself as well as he felt he must, which meant that the pay-out agent would be quite insistent that every single last cent of the final sum be there before the offer was announced. Not if he wanted them to continue to honor the simple system he had had yet another in-between, also deceased, originally set up, where all a 'successful' claimer would need to take the funds would be proof of the deed and Hench's own approval, validated by the complex code that had been established for the original $10 million bounty. And that proof would have to be incontestable. No possibly doctored photos. No secondary or unidentifiable body parts. Not even that famous red scalp. He'd had a space on his trophy shelf set aside for Possible's head for over a year. For what he was about to pay, he'd settle for nothing less.

Now, however, Hench's own conditions were threatening to destabilize everything, especially the requirement that all transactions had to handled in certified clean cash or its precious metal equivalent. For a mere $10 million it had been the work of minutes to have the funds physically moved and laundered. But as he began to work out the logistics of this new massive funds transfer, Hench had the growing realization that he hadn't thought carefully enough about the repercussions of shifting that much working capital out of the company all at once. Henchco might be a multi-billion dollar a year company, but a half-bil U.S. was still considerably more than he had in excess cash flow, let alone clean petty cash. In fact, he hadn't really realized how cash poor his operation had become over the last several years. Salaries had gone through the roof due to hazard pay and his employee pension plan was sucking down capital like a Las Vegas hooker trying to make her quota thanks to premature 'retirements.' In fact, about the only ready reserve of cash he had of that size, where the bite might not be noticed was…

Hench stopped for a moment. This was incredibly dangerous.

But it would only be for a few weeks, 'til he could shift other funds around to cover the disappearance.

Damnit, if he was going to do this, he had to do it now, before Possible and Shego became even more of a force than they already were. Keeping his henchmen in line was difficult even in the best of times, and the times had not been good. The ideal hench was aggressive and trainable, but not particularly bright, and that combination tended to include a lot of men who resented all authority. He had developed the Hate Site program as part of a way of keeping the enmity of his men focused on a handful of outside forces rather than the actual man who routinely sold their lives away. What he and his analysts had suspected, and quickly proven right, was that the pack nature of large groups of humans could be manipulated with surprising exactitude if they believed the ideas they were acting on came from within their own group; and the anonymity of the hate site allowed Hench to seamlessly insert his own ideas and goals among those of the common foot soldiers of his army. Whenever there was an issue developing within the rank and file, he would order the ultra-secret group who actually 'contributed' nearly a third of the Hate Site postings to step up their attacks on a particular target, which for the last several years had almost always meant Possible. Initially she'd been meant to be a throwaway target, but inexplicably the little cunt continued to survive. And as she'd kept going, taking down powerhouses like Monkey Fist, DNAmy and even completely extraterrestrial forces like the Lowardians, the unanticipated side effect had been that Possible had grown from a minor nuisance status in his men's eyes to some kind of unstoppable she-devil. If she was allowed to fully ascend to the new level that assuming command of the Global Rescue hinted at, he might not even be able to find men to go against her… at least, not men who were actually reliable and not simply insane killers. And that was incredibly bad for business, as Jack's customers came to him to specifically avoid getting insane killers on their payrolls.

Frankly, he would have just had the girl offed and been done with it years ago, except for the fact that her age and relative prominence meant that anything that happened to her would be scrutinized much more closely than, say, a 30-something FBI agent mysteriously driving off a cliff. And the slightest chance of Jack Hench being directly tied, however remotely, with actual violence was something he could not afford. His very business depended on the 'law's continued acceptance of the fiction that Hench was only a not-quite villain. Yes, he sold the gear, he trained the soldiers, but he let others use them and take them into battle. No more illegal than what any other arms dealer did. So even though he'd been responsible for more deaths and murders than any of the so-called supervillains he serviced, there had always been a clear and definite separation between Henchco and the actual perpetrators, and he escaped any legal ramifications simply by playing the part of the rational businessman who always kept things under control and obeyed the letter of the law if not the spirit. But if any of his more hidden activities, which included profiting on assets bought both in advance and in the aftermath of villain plans that he became aware of due to the reports of the spies in his Hench-pools, or the elimination of potential competitors via unpaid for hits done as 'favors,' were ever to become public knowledge, then the already-stretched thin lie would snap and Henchco's assets would be seized and frozen. He knew Global Justice had been waiting for an excuse for years, and any potential connection to a major operation like the assassination of Kim Possible would no doubt result in Hench needing to simply disappear from the face of the planet for… maybe fifteen to twenty years.

Hench sighed. It had all been that damn calendar that started this. That's when he'd suddenly realized that Possible wasn't a little girl anymore. That she was in danger of maturing from a pain in the ass to a major threat. He'd been right about that, it seemed, but had undervalued the cost of eliminating her. That meant that this time, he had to assume his instincts were right again and make absolutely certain she was taken out now.

He picked up the phone and dialed Raymond, his evil accountant.

"Ray? Jack. Something's come up and we need to juggle some funds. Do you have a moment?"

######

Meanwhile, the one semi-supervillain wannabe who was already after Kim Possible had finally hit the end of his rope. Thank the spirit of the O-boys that he'd thought to shut off all the television and internet access several days ago, because even with the increasingly more frequent attitudinator treatments he was having to give his faux-Kim, it would have been almost impossible to control her if she had seen the media blitz that was going on now with the REAL Kim Possible.

And that news… terrifying! Possible was partnered with Shego? The idea of the only two women who had ever made Junior's lusty testicles wither in fear working together was something he had never even imagined… although, now that he thought about it, that time they had all been in San Francisco together, Shego had said some rather odd things and the two had seemed unusually… what was the phrase? Chummy. Yes, unusually chummy for supposed archenemies.

On the other hand, the fact that they would be working for this 'Global Rescue' might actually give him the chance he had been looking for. High tech robberies were difficult to set up, disasters much less so. Yes… that would actually play to Junior's strong suits.

And better yet, he could put faux-Kim to work building traps for the real Kim while he set up the disaster would keep the bitch occupied. That would trick the dumb slut into thinking she was actually doing something. But what to do…? The ideal disaster would take place somewhere remote, but not too remote... Junior did not think he could stand not having access to good spas and a nightclub or two… And, given all the news coverage, it would preferably be someplace with no television reception or newsstands. But what…?

Coming up blank… a not unusual occurrence for Junior… he solved the issue the way he usually did: pulling out a list of his father's assets and seeing what might best suit his needs.

'_Ah,'_ He thought as he came to an item halfway down the first page. _'The very thing!'_

"Kim my darling!" He called out, almost gleeful that he finally had a new course of action to follow. "We need to start packing, my love!"

######

"HYG, DL," Monique grinned as she made her delivery to the woman who had been the terror of the planet just a year ago. The same woman who was now sitting behind her desk and working through a bewildering array of requisition forms and budget sheets, while wearing the cutest little black skirt, a low-cut white sweater combo and a pastel green blouse. With white bobbysox and white and black saddle shoes. Sooooo Scary!

"Okay, so that's... here you go?" Shego looked up, correctly puzzling out the first acronym, "no clue on the rest."

"Dragon Lady," Monique laughed. "If Kim's going to keep using her little nickname for you in public, I figured you'd probably like having a reference that doesn't apply to THAT."

"Appreciated," Shego returned. "But if I was that worried about THAT I wouldn't have done THAT." The green woman's eyes flicked to the huge 'abstract mural' hanging on her office wall to her right, conveniently located where she could look at it easily but invisible to anyone standing outside the door. It was a striking piece: a huge white 'canvas' crossed with what appeared to be abstract figures and shapes rendered in burnt umber… markings that were actually scorch marks.

Perhaps it said something about Shego's growing comfort with her own sexuality that she had used one of her own bedsheets as the main fixture of art in her otherwise quite prim and proper office area. Or perhaps it was a residual bit of villain- style gloating, a desire to post the ultimate trophy, a not so subtle declaration of 'Hey look! I'm nailing Kim Possible!' Of course, what she had really wanted to put up there was an actual nude of Kim, but, on reflection, she had decided that that was probably pushing the bounds of office etiquette just a bit to have your co-director mounted on the wall.

She'd have to settle for mounting her in private, she thought dreamily.

Monique's own eyes flicked to the 'artwork' and Shego's expression. She knew what it was, and, although the implications its existence implied of the nature of its origin obviously left her a bit unsettled, one of her most recent 'favors' for her friends had been to use the Space Center's ultra-looms to create a new set of indestructible fitted sheets, covers and pillowcases. It had been outrageously expensive, but when she'd produced a cost estimate, Shego had simply offered her a credit card. For someone so gifted at producing erotic images, the young designer still seemed a bit antsy about the actual physical manifestations of sex, and still got noticeably uncomfortable when Kim and Shego started to get too friendly in her presence. Then again, Shego got the feeling that Monique would behave the same if it she'd run into Ron and Yori engaged in their ninja-sex hijinx.

Quite amusing, really, considering what Monique had just dropped on Shego's desk. The green woman picked up the proffered portfolio and flicked through it quickly… the speed being from the eagerness to see each new design, not disappointment with the previous one.

"These are all fantastic," Shego practically glowed. "Especially these ones you called 'flame-wear.' How much?"

"Well, about that," Monique began. "The extrusion costs would be about six grand a pair, but…"

"Yes?"

"I may have shown a few to my boss at Banana Republic and they're talking about starting a new lingerie line… with me as the main designer. I think we could get the fireproof versions for free if…"

"Yessss?"

"You'd be willing to… uh… model for the ads?"

"You wouldn't even have to bribe me for that," Shego smiled. "And compared to some of the things you've already come up with for Kim and me…"

"Um, yes. Er, Thanks!" Monique blushed.

"And what about the other delivery?"

"Approval's been granted on six designs, still waiting on the others. I'm doing as much of it as I can in person so there's no paper trail."

"Good," Shego nodded. The new mission uniforms that Monique had designed were going to be as bulletproof and fireproof as was achievable, and would begin arriving within the week. The bullet resistant 'incognito' wear Kim had envisioned, however, was taking a bit longer due to the need to get approval from the owners of the designs. Given that a secret weapon… or in this case, a secret defense… loses much of its effectiveness when it ceases to become a secret, they were trying to keep as few people in the loop as practical. Which was why, as soon as Shego and Kim finished their own little jaunts in it, Will Du would be using Shego's Lear Jet to fly Monique to Brazil in order to secure the direct signature of the reclusive designer responsible for three of Kim's favorite outfits. "Better than I'd hoped, actually."

"Well, I've got an even better idea," Monique announced with a grin. "I know you wanted those designs to be a surprise for her… but I could make them in her size as well. So until we get full approval on everything…"

"Kim would be wearing a fireproof, bullet-proof baby doll under her street clothes, wherever she goes." Shego's smile would put an alligator to shame. "I like it."

"I rather thought you would," Monique purred. "Let me know which colors you want... besides green, that is."

Shego watched the woman slink out of her office with a smile. Although she and Monique were as different as two women could be, they had forged a rather unique friendship based around their mutual relations with a certain redhead. Monique might have a little trouble with conceptualizing exactly what it was that Shego was doing to Kim, but she was also clearly glad that someone was finally doing Kim period. Shego, on the other hand, was simply thankful to find a co-conspirator who wasn't either a male or a relative. The green woman was painfully aware that she'd spent most of her life in entirely male-dominated environments and having someone she could talk to about 'girl' issues, and especially 'girl' issues that she wasn't ready to broach with Kimmie yet, was a lifesaver.

Consider Kim's upcoming birthday... it was still several months off, but Shego wanted it to be perfect and she'd quickly become frustrated by the fact that Kim really didn't seem to need or want anything. Oh, she collected those cuddle-buddie things, but that could only go so far. So, in desperation, she'd asked Monique for advice.

"GF," The woman had laughed, "You think you don't know what Kim wants? Go take a look in the mirror. That's your answer."

So, rather than giving Kim a pile of expensive gifts, Monique had guided Shego down the path of fantasies instead. A trip to an exclusive tropical resort where they would be the only two people on their own island. Dinners in Paris, New York and MonteCarlo. And some extremely erotic lingerie, to be worn by Shego at the most unexpected moments. It was the sort of thing Shego never would have come up with on her own, but even as Monique had started explaining, it had all made perfect sense.

Romance. What a concept. And yet, it had made Shego excited just thinking about it, and if she knew her kitten at all, it was exactly what she'd appreciate the most as well.

Well, besides their usual nightly rumble/intimate relations, the morning pick-up sessions of same, and the quick grab-ass that inevitably happened when she and Kim went to one of their offices for a 'debriefing.' And, most of all, the cuddling sessions that preceded and followed. That was the weirdest/nicest part. Shego had never imagined herself to be a snuggler, but she was... primarily because when she was in her Princess's arms, she had no doubt at all that she was the most treasured thing in the young woman's world.

After all, why else would the otherwise exceedingly private redhead be willing to do what she was doing right now in an office on the other side of town? Let alone be willing to take a trip, tomorrow, to that ultimate place of torment?

The same reason that Shego, whose previous favorite indulgence has always been sleeping 'til noon, now got up early so that she could have a proper breakfast prepared. And was willing to go to the above mentioned place of torment as well.

Because love made you do crazy things, and they were both obviously certifiable.

######

"So, that is basically where we stand, Ms. Possible," The attractive man sitting across from Kim folded the folio in front of him and looked at her expectantly. Although he dressed like a lawyer, there was something about him that made him feel far less threatening than the usual suit. Like someone's favorite uncle. Maybe it was his tousled brown hair or the sparkle in his brown eyes.

"I see," Kim finally said, her brain pounding. "You understand that I'm going to have to talk this over with my partner first?"

"Absolutely," The man replied approvingly. "This is a tremendous step and we appreciate your even considering it. We already have a number of actors and musicians willing to participate, but once we get outside the arts, we've been far less successful."

"I wish I could say I'm surprised," Kim nodded. "The world being what it is. Not everyone's in as fortunate a position as I am."

"I'll let you know as soon as I... we've made up our mind," Kim began to finish, then paused as the question she hadn't yet asked popped back into her brain. "But one last thing. How did you know? Were you just guessing or...?"

"My dear," Tim Laska, the regional head of Advocates for LGBT Youth, pointed to the newspaper photo he had sitting on his desk and smiled. "This photo told me all I needed. I just wasn't sure if you had realized it yet."

"And if I hadn't?"

"I'm still a fully accredited counselor," The man's eyes twinkled. "And if you ever do have any questions...?"

"In that case, I suspect you'll be hearing from me soon," Kim grinned wryly, "One way or another."


	31. Chapter 31

_Author's Note: One last side trip... literally... before the BIG ball starts rolling. There have been a number of queries about Team Go, how they fit in all this, etc., so hopefully this answers a few of those, and there's more of Shego's backstory mixed in as well. Thanks again for all the reviews and comments... your kind words have been the fuel that's kept this rocket going at the pace that it has. Who knew that a little piece of fluff like Clique Clique would spawn such a monster... I sure as heck didn't. But enough of this, here's what you've been waiting for: __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Hego, Mego, Wego and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 31

######

It appeared that the GO tower was now the Gu tower.

Kim had known that Go City wasn't as far along in its recovery as Middleton, but it was still a shock to see that the famous landmark was missing nearly half of its above ground floors of the right "O" half as they drove past in the rented green convertible.

"Abandoned," Shego commented brusquely, barely glancing at her former residence as they drove past. "It's actually still somewhat livable, but ever since the Feds riffed the research teams, the city was picking up a bigger and bigger portion of the overhead. When the Lowardians decided it looked important enough to take a pot shot at it, that was the final straw. They'd have sold the land for a mall or a SmartyMart already, but it turned out there's an undeclared toxic waste dump on the site." The green woman took a second, swallowing some obviously complex emotions, then sighed. "Probably where my fucking toe went."

"I'm sorry," Was all Kim could think of to say. She still had a hard time processing the fact that the sleek and... well, not elegant, but obviously very expensive building... had been little more than a glorified prison. No, prison wasn't even the correct word, because prisoners still had some basic human rights. It was a concentration camp, built to contain a handful of children who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Genetic slavery, right here in the U.S., all done at the taxpayers expense.

"You had nothing to do with it," Shego spoke after a long moment of silence. "I'm sorry for driving this way. It just gets me all hot and bothered."

"Which should be my job," Kim attempted to lighten the mood. She'd known that Shego was feeling apprehensive as soon as she saw what her lover had chosen to put on before heading to the airport this morning. Black slacks, black and green two-toned tee and knee high black boots. It wasn't exactly her classic cat suit, but it was close enough that it helped her maintain what Kim had taken to calling her She-armor attitude.

"So where do they all live now?" She asked, carefully tossing her hair with a flick that she knew would send it streaming back behind her in a way Shego loved. There'd be more than a few tangles to work out as a result, but the cost was worth it, as her partner saw and correctly interpreted the gesture, favoring her with a grateful smile. "You said you stayed with them for Christmas?"

"Oh, Mego's place is huge. He can't really afford it, but he and his wife were planning on a big family. Still do, actually, though it'll have to be adopted. Hego's got a little apartment somewhere downtown. None of us have ever seen it, but he's the manager of a Bueno Nacho, so I wouldn't expect much. The Wegos, on the other hand, are doing pretty well for themselves. Between you, me and this steering column, I think they've worked out some new angle on their powers, but they're pretty tight lipped. Anyway, they've got a place not far from Meeg's."

"Still living together?"

"I think a better question is whether they've ever really been apart."

That wasn't just a rhetorical question. Kim had been horrified when she found out about the amputation of one of Shego's toes just 'to see if it would grow back' but the follow up on the... at that time still singular... Wego had been even more shocking. Not only had the original Wego regenerated the removed tissue, the removed tissue had regenerated the original Wego. Not just the physical body... a perfect copy right down to the individual scars... but all of the memories as well. They were so identical that within a few weeks no one was even sure which WAS the original anymore, and if the Wegos knew, they weren't telling. Even after all these years, they still seemed to be more one person multiplied than two separate individuals. Fortunately, that last experiment had occurred right before a change in administration and the new regime, eager to erase all trace of their predecessors, had canceled all future such experiments as both immoral and inhumane. Of course, most of the same scientists had stayed on, so it had really been a question of 'when' they'd be allowed to continue their more 'extreme research' as opposed to 'if.' It had been at that point, though, that the now five children were finally given a degree of freedom they hadn't had before, being allowed to go to a real school and re-integrate into society... provided they 'pay' their way by becoming a superhero team and giving the shadowy federal project that funded the GO research program some badly needed positive spin as its activities became the target of a congressional investigation.

So even the 'best' thing Shego had ever done in her life had really just been part of a cover-up in the end, and none of the kids had exactly been given a choice about volunteering. Honestly, the more that Kim had learned about Shego's past, the question wasn't why the woman had taken to the dark path with Drakken, but why she hadn't taken it a lot earlier on her own.

######

"Hey Sis!" Mego smiled as he opened the door. Unlike his sister, he and his brothers could all turn their comet-powers completely off, which returned them to normal human colors. Dressed in a casual polo shirt, slacks and loafers, he looked like any other middle-suburban husband, and Kim knew that a huge part of the resentment Shego had held against her brothers was the fact that they could, and did, have secret identities. They'd even all been sent to different schools to make the connections to Team Go less obvious, and as far as anyone had been able to tell, none of those IDs had been cracked until after Shego left the team, so Mego... _Miniaturizing Enhanced Genetically-altered Organism – Male__..._ still went by Myron Ecclesiastes Goldberg, Hego... _Herculean Enhanced Genetically-altered Organism – Male..._ was still Henry Ulysses Joyce and the Wegos... _Wide-extending Entity Group Organism – Male (plural)..._ were Larry and Joseph Curlymoe.

All pretty good reasons for never letting teenage boys pick their own names.

Of course, Shego, who already stuck out like a green thumb but still wanted to go to a real school for the experience, hadn't had that option. She'd ended up taking classes as Shego F., and even though one day out of three was usually a living hell, had stuck it out rather than spending a single second longer in the Tower than she'd had to.

"Hey Meeg," Shego was putting on her best-est fake smile. "You remember Kim, right?"

"Yeah, of course. Come on in." Mego motioned them back into the house, which Kim saw was sparsely decorated in early-Ikea. Like the knock-off Izod shirt and Rolex look-alike Mego was wearing, the whole house had the appearance of trying to make itself look like something just a little bit more than what it really was. "Fran's throwing some stuff together in the kitchen. We saw that you guys had inked a sweet deal with GJ. How'd you pull that off? I can't even get them to return my calls. Hey, you looking at setting up in a facility in the area? I know of this sweet lot down by the old chemical yards..."

"Um, no," Shego grimaced. Kim knew that she'd been pretty vague on exactly why she was coming through town and they should have anticipated that her would-be wheeler-dealer brother might have interpreted it that way. "Is every one else here?"

"Hego and the Weegs are in the game room and, uh... they've got a bit of a surprise Sheeg."

"Uh oh," Shego muttered out of the side of her mouth to Kim. "That's NEVER good."

Indeed, as they approached the so-called game room, they heard loud voices arguing, and as they entered it was instantly clear what the 'surprise' was. Each of Shego's youngest brother was standing next to one of a pair of identical twin Asian girls... and 'girls' was the right word, as neither looked over 17. .. as they argued with Hego over something to do with the ping pong table.

"No, I say it's not fair," Henry/Hego was complaining. "Once you get started playing with yourself, no one else ever get's a chance to..."

"AH-HUM!" Shego cleared her throat loudly. It was almost a drill-sergeant sound and the three men almost snapped to attention from the unexpected interruption. Kim even felt Mego go rigid beside her in instinctive response.

"Weegs," Shego went into a mode that some might identify as _'commanding officer'_ but Kim realized instantly was actually _'Mom.'_ A snarky, sarcastic mom, perhaps, but that was definitely a mother tone without the accompanying F word. Who would have thought? "One of you can play at a time; you know Hego gets sulky if he can't show off his muscles."

"I do no..."

Shego cut off her big brother with a skill born of long practice. "But before you start playing with your little white balls, would you care to introduce us?"

"Oh, uh..." "Sure!" Wego 1 and Wego 2 fired off in sequence. "Um, this is Amihan..." "And Imee, they're our..." "Fiancées," (this last said in unison) "And this is our sister Shego" "and her friend..."

"KIM POSSIBLE!" Amihan and Imee screamed at once, practically flying across the room to glom onto Kim like white blood cells. Stunningly, like the Wegos, they also spoke in shared sentences. "Do you remember us?""The big monsoon and landslide?" "In the Phillipines?" "You saved our village!" "Of course we were only children then!"

"Uh, gosh," Kim stuttered, a bit overwhelmed... especially since that had only been two years ago, which if the girls acknowledgment of having been children then was true... "Well, I remember that trip to the Phillipines, sure, but... uh, everything was pretty muddy and you've obviously grown up a lot since then! But..." SHe hazzarded a guess. "You were with the Datu, right?"

"YOU REMEMBERED!" The girls shrieked and bounced up and down and jiggled. A lot.

"Okay, enough with the squealing," Shego spoke loudly and with such an acid edge as she physically separated Kim from her adoring fan club that Kim wanted to squeal in delight at what, to her, was obviously barely restrained jealousy on her girlfriends part. _'She loves me, she loves me,'_ she hummed internally.

"Weegs," Shego was in full interogation mode, "Does the fact that you're getting married to two Filipinas mean what I think it means?"

"Hey, we MET them on the internet," "But we went down and spent some time there as well." "They're perfect for us, sis." Came the final chorus.

"Uh huh," Shego's face grew cloudly. "Well, I expect you to give them a nice long courtship first, you got me?"

"Yes Sheegs!" came that same at-attention response.

"Ms. Possible," Hego nodded pleasantly.

"Hego," Kim returned, "Or do you prefer Henry or...?"

"Well, Henry in public, obviously, if I'm out of uniform," the big man grinned, "But Heeg is fine in person. I was never very fond of the O part."

"I can imagine," Kim agreed, "knowing what it stands for."

"You told her?" Hego looked incredulously at his sister.

"We've got a lot to talk about," Shego sighed. "Meegs, do you think Fran would prefer us in here or the living room."

"Oh, living room, definitely," Mego replied, now getting the hint. "Guys, ladies, we can come back to Ping Pong later. Fran makes the most incredible pierogis, but they're best eaten off a tray."

#####

Fran Goldman, Kim shouldn't have been surprised to learn, was an absolutely tiny woman who barely topped 4'10". She also bore a rather suspicious resemblance to Shego as, she was now retroactively realizing, Amihan and Imee did as well. While the two Filipinas obviously lacked the green eyes that Fran and Shego shared, all four had the same long black hair and similar faces and figures. Interesting. She'd read that people tended to gravitate to mates who resembled their parents and it appeared that Shego served as that model for her brothers. Her straight ones, anyway.

And the pierogis LOOKED fantastic; Fran served them with a side of sour cream and paprika that had Kim drooling until she caught Shego's sideways scowl.

"You may have up to three," the green woman whispered from next to her on the couch as the serving plate came past, "Just to be polite."

"Grumble, grumble, grumble," Kim muttered in response. She took two.

"So, uh, Sheegs, Ms. Possible," "Do you want to tell us what this is about?" Asked Weegs 1 & 2.

Kim and Shego exchanged looks. Might as well get it over with.

"Okay," Kim began, "As you've heard, we're building a new organization called Global Rescue. I know that you've all retired from fighting crime... full time," she amended quickly as Hego started to protest, "But the fact is that you all have abilities that would be incredibly useful in the course of what we do."

She had their full attention now. She knew that both Mego and Hego were in fairly poor financial shape and that the Weegs had always been the daredevils of the group. "Right now Global Rescue is more a name than an actual organization, but our operational plan is to have a half dozen fast response stations up and in service around the world within the next two years. We'd like to offer you the opportunity to come on board. Shego says that..."

"What I said," Shego interrupted, "Was that while you're all still a bunch of lame-ass goofballs, you're still a damn effective group of lame-ass goofballs."

"Uh, yeah," Kim finished lamely.

"Hmmm..." Mego 'thought' aloud carefully. "And that's all there is to it?"

"Huh?" "What?" Kim/Shego responded together.

"You could have done that by phone. Don't get me wrong," Meego smiled, "The way things are going these days, the offers sounds pretty appealing, though I'd have to see the terms of the contract to make sure there are no hidden gotchas in the fine print."

"I'm your SISTER Mego!" Shego ejaculated in outrage.

"Which is why I need to check," Mego grinned. "Ms. Possible by herself I would trust. But spill sis, what's the REAL reason?"

Kim and Shego looked at each other.

"Well..." Kim began.

"You know that we're partners in running Global Rescue, right?" Shego continued.

It was really weird having every eye in the room focused on you, Kim thought. She was going to have to stop doing things that caused that to happen.

Oh no, wait, she was Kim Possible and she was living with Shego. The odds of not being the center of attention anymore... not so likely.

"Well, we also kind of came to tell you that... we're also partners in another way," Kim finished.

"Eh?/Eh?" Went the Wegos.

"We're a couple." Shego gave up, grabbing Kim's hand for emphasis. "Romantically. The word'll probably get out soon and we wanted you to be aware."

Kim had heard the expression 'that let the air out of the room' before, but this was the first time she understood what it meant. The collective sounds of startlement/surprise/etc. really did sound like the room was being squeezed.

And then came the kicker.

"Good." Smiled Hego. "I thought there was something there."

"What?" Shego yelped. "Oh no, you are SO not pulling a Stoppable on me, Heeg!"

"I don't know what a 'stoppable' is," Hego replied archly, "But if it has something to do with that fine young man who helped save the planet, I'm sure it's an honor."

"And he does have a point," Mego joined in. "I mean, the only two times we see you while you're hooked up with that blue bozo, they're both tied to Kim here, and then when you show up for Xmas every third sentence has something to do with her."

"What?" Kim gasped/giggled.

"Oh yeah," The Weegs joined in. "And she calls you Princess!" "Had your calendar too, thought that was strange." "And when they fought together, they held hands, did you notice that?" "Hey, didn't you actually live with her for a week?"

Caught in the middle of the fraternal verbal barrage, Shego's face had been slowly knotting up like one of the nasty dolls made out of foam and old pantyhose. Finally, something gave.

"FINE!" She screamed. "I was in love with her then! I'm in love with her now! SO WHAT?"

"Well, congratulations," Hego shrugged into the silence that followed. "I don't know why you always have so much trouble admitting how you feel..."

"Me? ME?" Shego fired back, rather unimaginatively. "I have trouble? ME?"

"Yes, sister dear. I admit that you had it a lot tougher than we did. We all know that. But you were always there for us when WE needed to vent, so why you thought..."

"Um, Hego," Kim interrupted. "I'm sure you mean well, but it's not going to do me much good to have a girlfriend behind bars, which I'm likely to if you keep provoking her."

As Kim was saying this, she sidled over on the sofa and slipped her arm around the sputtering Shego. "It's okay sweetie. Think calm thoughts."

"Gaaaaaa" Gurgled Shego, which Kim was fairly sure translated out as _'Family! Who needs it?'_

"Would anyone like a cola or ice tea?" Fran asked brightly, having long since learned that her husband's family was just a little unusual. That left the reactions of the newest (potential) members of the family to still be added.

"Hee-sha crazy!" Amihan whispered to her twin. "Yeah," Imee responded. "Hooka hooka ba!"

#######

"See, that wasn't so bad," Kim told Shego as they headed back to the airport. "Six hours with your brothers and nobody dead or seriously wounded."

"And a great time was had by all," Shego growled. "I can't believe we actually invited them to join Global Rescue."

"Huh?" Kim blinked in mock confusion, "You mean it wasn't your idea to get them stationed to the base in Tierra Del Fuego?"

"Tierra...?" Shego did a double take as she looked at Kim in stunned amazement... and then a sly smile began to ooze across her face. "Come to think of it, we really need to review the plan and see if that Antarctica post might not make more sense..."

"Maybe," Kim agreed brightly. "Better?"

Shego's hand found hers and squeezed it tightly. "Lot's better."

And then a dark shadow came over her face. Over both their faces, actually.

It was the shadow of the GO tower, looking eerily like a tombstone as it blocked the last light of the setting sun.

"Did you want...?" Kim asked carefully, already knowing the answer.

"It's time," Shego admitted softly, turning the car off the main road and onto the unmarked access road that was now almost completely hidden by overgrown grass.

#####

The inside of the building stank. It wasn't foul, not quite yet, but it had that musty smell of mold growing inside the walls coupled with the sickly-sweet tang of ancient bits of trash in their final stages of decay that Kim had come to associate with abandoned buildings.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kim asked, looking at the pale face of the woman holding the industrial lantern in front of her.

"Yeah," Shego spoke softly. "Sooner or later they're going to knock this place down and then it'll be too late."

"Okay then," Kim nodded and switched her Kimmunicator to 'camera' mode. "Tell me what you want me to take pictures of."

"First door on the left. We'll start there. Operating room one."

Kim's simply put one hand on her lover's shoulder in what she hoped was a reassuring response. Shego might not have even heard her if she had said anything aloud anyway... there were too many ghosts already speaking to her.

#####

Several hours later, well after the industrial lantern had noticeably started to dim, they entered the last room Shego wanted to visit. After all the stripped out medical bays, the containment areas and the claustrophobic isolation rooms, Kim had no idea what else could still be waiting... what Shego might have been putting off for last.

But, what it was, was simply a storage room. A high security storage room, filled with what looked like a bank safety deposit boxes and a handful of larger lockers, but nothing more.

But they meant something to Shego. Kim watched as her lover moved slowly across the room, counting off the numbers until she hit the one she was looking for. Literally the size of a breadbox.

It was locked, of course. Shego could have picked it. She chose instead to melt the door off with a needle-sharp burst of plasma, vaporizing the hinges.

What was inside wasn't what Kim was expecting. It was a small silk bag, the kind that usually came wrapped around an expensive liqueur, but the bag itself wasn't important and Shego let it fall to the ground.

Inside was a single silver picture frame. As quietly as she could, Kim moved to get a better vantage point, but Shego sensed her and... with a sad smile... offered it to Kim.

Four children in a yard, a huge tree behind them with slats of wood nailed in the trunk. A ladder going up to an unseen treehouse.

Behind the children, two adults. A man and a woman, their faces forever given anonymity by the poor cropping of the picture, which had completely cut off the man's head and showed only the jaw of the woman.

Even from that little bit, Kim could see that she favored Shego. Or Shego favored her.

Kim ran her fingers over the edge of the silver frame, her eyes captivated by the small child in the center. The thin girl with the shy, nervous smile.

"You were a beautiful child."

"All children are beautiful Kim."

"Yes. Of course they are. They're our future."

"Then it's time to stop dwelling on the past." Without another word, Shego turned and started walking down the hallway, back towards the stairs they had first entered the now abandoned section by.

Pausing only to make sure that the small photograph was safe and secure in her pocket, Kim followed.


	32. Chapter 32

_Author's Note: first, I just discovered that a bunch of my preferences got reset somehow, so if you're waiting on a response to a PM, that might be what happened. I'm still learning all the functions here and am still mystified by the way some of them have been set up. Thanks to everyone for reading, and especially the ones who fav and send reviews. I'm working in a vacuum here, so normally what you get is what happens to trickle out of the word processor as it amuses my fancy… but some chapters, like the previous one, were written in direct response to some questions that came my way via a forum. Ask and ye may receive. Oh, and somewhere between 31 and this one, the hit mark passed 40,000. No idea if that's good or bad, but it's a nice round number that seems to indicate that someone's reading. That said, my current goal is to finish ATCOTS before the end of November 2010. Not a written in blood promise, but I have paid assignments that are going to keep me tied up for a bit after that, so it's a goal to shoot for. Hope you enjoy the rest of the ride. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Doctor Director, Big Daddy Brotherson, Jack Hench, Senor Senior Junior, Bonnie Rockwaller and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 32

######

Shego lay in bed, her eyes softly focused on the form of the woman sleeping next to her. There had been times she'd felt as if her life had been one long nightmare, but somehow, having Kim beside her made even the worst of the fears shrink into insignificance. It wasn't like her problems disappeared... that would be impossible for anyone to completely manage... but somehow her Princess always found a way to view things from a better perspective, where the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't necessarily an oncoming train. It was a singular ability that Shego had always lacked, and one that she considered a super power far greater than any plasma or enhanced healing.

The mere fact that Kim knew how to deal with Shego when she was in one of her moods was just one more proof that the girl wasn't completely human. NOBODY had ever known how to deal with Shego when the blackest of depressions hit, but after the events of today, instead of as monumentally depressed as she usually felt after seeing her brothers, there was a strange lack of the normal guilt. Maybe it was because, for once, she had gone there with something to offer, instead of simply watching them struggle with their lives while she, the one who ran away... the one who'd turned evil... had inexplicably done better than all of them.

And after that last walk through the tower... and she swore that it would be the last time she ever entered that damned building... she'd felt almost purged. She'd started talking, explaining what had happened in each room, the parts of the nightmare that had begun there, and somehow, the fact that Kim was there to listen, to give her the hugs when she needed them, took away much of the pain that those memories inflicted. She'd never completely escape from the tower... it was too much a part of her soul now... but it no longer held her trapped as it once had.

The hardest part had been the last. They'd been dancing around the particular issue for a few days now, but being in the tower, putting the demons to rest, had given her the strength to unearth the last secret. The one that had always shamed her the most.

The real reason she had run.

Looking back at it clearly now, she could see that it had just been a matter of time. She'd been thinking about escape for a while. The kidnapping and the… probable rape… and the thing that she'd done afterwards. Those had just been the trigger.

After the 'test' that had led to WeGo's ability, they had finally had enough. They might not be able to defy the overall organization that held them, but they could and did become far more forceful in protecting themselves against the most overzealous researchers, and a few hints about what might happen to anyone who tried that anything like that against any of the siblings again, regardless of whatever price they might ultimately end up paying, had brought about a temporary abatement… not a complete cessation of all of the tests, but at least of the more extreme ones. And the siblings had known that that, more than any change of administration, was what had really pushed the researchers to curtail their agenda, and had given them some breathing time. But it was only a lull, and they all knew it.

And as the only girl, Shego had known what was inevitable. At some point someone was going to want to find out if she could… carry an offspring to term. Before the kidnapping, there'd been the ethical issue of her virginity to consider. No matter how scientifically interesting the results might be, there were damn few scientists who wanted to be known for popping a 15 year old girl's cherry against her will. Even if she was government property.

And then, suddenly, she... and presumably they... had realized that there would be no evidence. They could do anything to her, while she was unconscious, and she would never even know thanks to her own traitorous healing. Not unless the experiment succeeded, of course, in which case the end would no doubt justify the means. Maybe it hadn't been completely rational on her part... and now, looking at it with a stronger vision, who could blame her for having been irrational at that point between the trauma and the ever increasing levels of drugs they were pumping into her as her body's powers learned to neutralize them almost as fast as they numbed her. But having been taken down once, reduced to complete and total helplessness, she had felt a growing feeling of panic inside her, a desperate need to get out of there NOW, before something did happen. Because if something did happen, she knew what her brothers would do, and she couldn't let them face the consequences of that.

She'd always thought she'd run because she cared more about herself than the others. But it was really the other way around. She knew that now, because when placed in a situation where it was a choice between someone else's life and her own, she had chosen the other person's. Repeatedly. She HAD risked her life repeatedly to save her Princess, and knew now that her excuse for running... to protect her brothers... hadn't been an excuse at all. Whether it had been the wisest course of action would probably always be unanswerable, but she HAD done it for the right reasons. Because she loved them. Because that was the real Shego.

After all these years, she knew who she was again. And she'd found the way back to herself because in being loved, she'd rediscovered that love had never really left her. It had just been waiting for the right person to cause it to bloom again.

The person lying on the pillow next to her. Who, like the true hero she was, had saved her love without even thinking about it. Simply by believing there was something there worth being saved.

#######

"Be careful with that," Junior yelled as the burly cargo workers brutally manhandled his precious giant penis into the yawning cockpit. "It is extremely important and valuable to me!"

Or was the place his penis was going called a hold? Junior wasn't sure... airplanes, boats, they had such ridiculous special terms... but he sighed with relief as the statue slipped inside the whatever it was without incident. Perhaps he should have left the Linga behind, but he had become quite attached to the giant monkey phallus over the last few days and the thought of not having it around to remind himself of himself was oddly disconcerting. And, more importantly, there was the chance that his father would discover and appropriate it. Junior suspected that his decrepit old sire might be more than a little upset should he happen to look in the cases that had once held his collection of violins made by that Stravioskius fellow, but Junior had finally hit critical cash flow and he had already made too many huge charges on his Plutonium card. The only way left to raise money... and he needed a lot of money to charter this plane and purchase all the required explosives and incendiaries... had been through that helpful Craig fellow who ran the secret fencing web page he called his 'List.' Fortunately, the violins had gone for his asking price without a hitch and hopefully his father would not notice that the cases now instead held Junior's old Aloha-Oy ukulele, that annoying tin guitar with the musical crank, and, lacking anything else violin shaped, an old clown shoe left over from when he had kidnapped that circus performer while attempting to learn how they fit so many actors into a single vehicle.

He had not known clowns were so tough. The man had only come up with the most ridiculous of stories. Now he was entertaining the fishes, as the big crime types liked to say.

"Junior, do we have ANY water?" Faux-Kim whined. Junior growled as his proud reflection on one of his more glorious achievements in villainy was interrupted by the subject of his current nadir.

Although actually, now that he thought about it, food and water might not be a bad thing to bring along. By Junior's estimates, the flight from this remote island airport to his new base of operations was either 10 or 68 hours, depending upon which way the pilot flew... Google maps was hard to figure out that way... and either way, the light lunch they'd had since leaving the lair would probably not suffice to hold them. He'd learned on previous flights that pilots were no so willing to share the meals they'd brought for themselves, but he was so very busy being in charge...

Making a quick decision, he reached into his pants and grabbed a wad of loose cash from his 'secret storage place,' then thrust it towards the brunette turned redhead.

"Here," he ordered. "Go into the airport gift shop and buy us some water, Snickerdoodles and... those fizzy grape drinks or whatever. Enough for five or six meals. But," he cautioned sternly, "Wear your dark glasses and try not to be recognized. We are traveling incognito."

Faux-Kim looked at the damp pile of cash in her hand in disgust, but nodded and scampered off with almost a spring in her step. Junior suppressed a sigh of irritation... the girl had far too much energy for his taste and she'd been locked up way too long. If he didn't catch Kim Possible in this next trap, he was just going to go to plan b and slit the former Bonnie Rockwaller's throat. Or something more creative he thought...

But first, he had to make sure everything here was done just right. He just wished he knew why he kept feeling like he had forgotten something?

######

The girl who was now Kim Possible was almost grinning as she entered the dirty little restaurant slash gift shop that serviced this out of the way airport. It wasn't much but it was SHOPPING! And that made her extraordinarily glad for some reason, as though it was an important part of her life that had somehow been omitted. Which was silly, of course, because everything she had read about herself said that she really wasn't all that in to consumerism in general. But here she was, feeling less fuzzy headed that she had in who knows how long, looking at the horrible t-shirts and tacky caps and enjoying the experience every bit as much as if she'd been at SAXON's department store. If only Junior hadn't said to keep a low profile... she'd have tried every single one of them on!

Frankly, she didn't understand why Junior was so paranoid. Since Rockwaller and Stoppable had performed this hideous plastic surgery on her, there was no way anyone was going to recognize her as Kim Possible. But for the last several days Junior had been even more suspicious and distrusting than usual, absolutely convinced that Global Justice had agents looking for her everywhere. Her only solace had been her Krav Maga lessons... retraining, she corrected herself, not lessons... she'd already known how to perform most of the moves, she just had to be reminded, and her instructor had seemed to agree, even though he didn't know that it was a refresher course for her. Not that he'd said much, given that he didn't speak much English and she didn't speak any... whatever language it was that he spoke. She'd been specifically instructed to avoid talking about anything except the training with him anyway, so the only person she'd had to talk with was Junior and he... well, for the genius who ran her website, he seemed to be rather lacking in some areas... for one thing the internet and TV had been down for several days now and he couldn't seem to get it back up.

Not that that was the ONLY thing he couldn't get back up. Half the time it was like having a dead squid in her mouth and the other half he just told her not to bother... AFTER he'd asked her to strip and get down on her knees. Stress, he claimed, she snickered.

Ah, and that brought her to the Snickerdoodles. 'Kim' hated the damn things but Junior loved them, so she grabbed three bags and then two potato chips for herself. Fizzy grape drinks for Junior, water for her, plus a few diet colas. Some pre-made sandwiches from the cooler, cookies and... what else?

A magazine, she thought! Something to pass the time, maybe something fashion oriented...

And then she stopped, struck dumb. That was HER face, her face that had been, that is, in insets on a half dozen covers. Unfortunately, they were all in foreign languages that she didn't understand... another skill she seemed to have lost... but they seemed tied to the identical main images of the two people in a volca...

No!

**NO!**

That was HER DOPPLEGANGER! And the woman she was with was her ARCHENEMY! SHEGO!

No wonder Junior had cut off all the media... and she knew now for sure that he'd cut it off. He'd no doubt feared that if she'd seen this she'd have gone berserk. And the fury filling her body told her that she very well might still.

But... and this was a strange but... there was something about that picture that mesmerized her. Something about the way the two women were looking at each other.

'_What in the hell is going on?'_ She wondered, then grabbed three of the magazines to add to her stash. She wouldn't let Junior know she knew just yet. Not until she REALLY knew. Maybe her language skills would come back if she concentrated on the articles hard enough.

But how to keep Junior from seeing her trying to read them? She looked around for something that resembled sleeping pills, but she couldn't see anything that was obviously a sedative. In fact, the only items that she was absolutely sure of in the entire pharmaceuticals section were the condoms and the laxatives, and the latter only because of the LAX in the logo.

Then again, she thought, it doesn't matter why he can't see me... just that he can't. And if he's otherwise occupied...

With an evil grin, 'Kim' added the super-sized bag of bowel bombs to the pack. They'd disappear just fine in a fizzy grape drink or... crushed to a powder... a pre-made sandwich or a bag of Snickerdoodle mix.

She grabbed three more bags of the later and a pill crusher, then went to the cashier.

#######

"Doctor Director?"

Betty looked up at the young woman who had just opened the door to her office without knocking. Most agents wouldn't have even considered doing such a thing unless the world itself was coming to an end. But from the way this woman was clutching a small folder of papers in her hands, it looked like that she might very well believe that to be the case.

"Yes, Agent...?" Betty took the initiative, motioning the woman to come in and shut the door.

"Dassak, Helen Dassak," The trim but rather busty young brunette replied nervously, her bright blue eyes made even brighter with apprehension. "Supplies and consumables."

Betty blinked. She'd never have guessed from the woman's athletic figure that she was actually an inventory clerk... but the Director usually dealt with that entire section via spreadsheets and a once a week meeting with the Senior Agent in charge of Requisitions and Ordering, Bill Later, which would explain why she didn't recognize the young Agent. Of course, the fact that Dassak WAS here meant that she was going around her superior. That could be an issue, but Betty's gut was telling her to find out what could prompt this kind of concern before considering a dressing down.

'_Or an un-dressing down,'_ a shocking new portion of her mind whispered. Damn Possible and Shego for planting these... notions... in her head. She'd gotten over that in college, damnit! And it just wasn't professional!

"I know this is highly irregular, ma'am," the clerk was continuing, "But my job is to track dietetic requirements for inmates, both current and projected, and to have supply chains already in place."

"Go on," Betty nodded. She understood the importance of the job; the last thing you wanted was for a criminal to be able to make a claim of cruel and unusual punishment because they had a gluten allergy and you had served them wheat crackers with their soup.

"Well," Helen resumed. "To simplify things, I created a program that analyzes each of GJ's current target's needs, likes and dislikes and keeps constant track of existing supply chains for those items. I thought it was just a simple labor saving device I had come up with, but over the last two days, I noticed something quite unusual with one of the profiles. I... I showed them to Seymour Datum in analysis, and he agreed there might be something here, but Mr. Later thought I should wait a bit longer and see if the pattern continues before we forwarded them."

Dassak bit her lip nervously. "The thing is, ma'am, if what I think I'm seeing is correct, it's not a pattern, it's a single incident. But I think it's an incident that may be important, and that means we may not have a few more days."

Okay, Betty thought, so the girl DID know she was treading in dangerous waters, but had chosen to venture there anyway. If there was one thing... two things... that the head of GJ liked in her agents, it was personal initiative and a willingness to put the greater good before their own personal security. Those and a really nice pair of...

"May I show them to you ma'am?"

"Please." At Betty's nod of acquiescence, Helen stepped forward and laid the printouts she had been carrying out in front of her.

"Well... This IS interesting." Doctor Director admitted after a long moment. The truth was that she was more than just impressed, both at the woman's ability to spot something useful among all the surrounding data, and her commitment to do what she thought she had to. "And you wrote the program that caught it yourself?"

"Yes ma'am," the agent/clerk bobbed her head nervously.

"Then I think we may not be have fully appreciated the range of your talents, Ms. Dassak," Betty smiled, admiring the young woman and hating herself for it because the reasons weren't entirely professional. Still... "It's almost lunchtime, so why don't you and I spend a few hours talking about how we might take advantage of your insights?"

"Of... of course," the blushing agent nodded back. "I'm completely at your disposal ma'am."

"Very good," Dr. Betty Director put on her very best formal persona. "Because I'd really like to know why anyone would need that many Snickerdoodles."

######

'_I need more Snickerdoodles,' _Big Daddy Brotherson thought, pacing anxiously. _'At least a six year supply of Snickerdoodles. Multipled by four safe houses.' _ The mountainous information broker had been trying to bury his anxieties by totally immersing himself in the process of making preparations for his own self-imposed exile, but his own anal obsessive tendencies were only serving to make everything even worse. He'd started off well, and he'd had several cargo planes in motion for the last two days, loading and shipping his most important physical possessions to multiple drop points as they made their way to safe retreats around the world. Some of those possessions were necessary to his continued business... his computers, his invisible phone system that was theoretically untappable... but others were purely personal in nature, like his enormous collection of multi-sided dice. He had literally tens of thousands of them yet could never resist buying a set when he saw them. Had he brought enough dice? Just in case a game came up. And then there was that third critical item: the snack foods. Candy. Cupcakes. Soda. It was an aggravating part of life that you couldn't get the best snacks everywhere and Brotherson's lifestyle was focused almost entirely around the rich and cheesey. And that meant some very complicated supply chains. Ketchup flavored potato chips? You had to go to Canada, or the UK (where they were called crisps because they called fries chips, the idiots.) A Flake bar? The U.K. again. And half of the best snack foods in the U.S. were actually regional... at least TastyKakes would ship direct by mail, but there were others that had to be shipped in from secondary suppliers in California, Georgia and even Mexico. And as bad as Australia was when it came to soft drinks, New Zealand was even worse! What kind of country called itself civilized when you couldn't buy a Moon Pie, let alone a Dr. Pepper? Of course, soda would never keep that long, but the syrup would, and he'd bought the carbon dioxide canisters and equipment to have his own fountains.

Needless to say, with that kind of attention to detail, having everything procured and shipped in duplicates to each of his safe houses was proving insanely expensive and difficult... he'd actually bought out an entire production run of Snickerdoodles all by himself. But, deep inside, he knew that fretting over the snacks was just a diversion to keep his mind off the actual problem. That it was really all just a wasted effort in the end. That his long term prospects were starting to smell worse than the decaying in-between down the hall... and he really needed to make a note for his menials to drop more quick-lime down there. That man was raising a far bigger stink in death than he ever had in life.

Which brought Brotherson back again to the issue of his own mortality. That was what it came down to in the end, as it was becoming increasingly evident that there was no way he could possibly store everything he would need to last him until the heat went down. And eventually, when he stuck his head out of his burrow like a particularly slow moving marmot, someone would be waiting to nab him. Unless the heat went away unexpectedly quickly... but what could cause that? The fact that someone else had already taken the fall, perhaps? Or that the offer had been cancelled or voided. There had to be an angle, a way he could weasel out of all of this without ruining his reputation. Some kind of technicality...

Hmmm, since the deal with Hench had been negotiated, there had really only five parties who knew what was going on: Brotherson, Hench, the Payout agent and the two now-deceased in-betweens... and the payout agent didn't know the identity of the survivng two, only that they would identify themselves at the appropriate time. For Hench that meant when it was time to identify the body, but Brotherson had never planned to reveal himself at all... still, maybe it was something he could use. The other area he had some waffle room in was the timing. Three days had been the timing they'd originally agreed on, but could Brotherson simply push back the announcement? At what point would Hench decide that he simply wasn't going to follow through?

And, in the end, having met all the parties involved, Brothers had to evaluate which of them actually frightened him more: Hench, Possible and Shego, or the Payout Agent.

And that's when he realized what he was going to have to do.

Hench had put the bullet in the chamber.

But Brotherson was going to pull the trigger. And he could aim it any way he wished.

######

Kim lay in bed, drinking in the sight of the morning light caressing Shego's form and envying its ability to touch every inch of her pale emerald body at once.

But she didn't reach over and touch. Peaceful sleep, free of nightmares, was still too precious a commodity to her lover.

The flight back to Middleton had been quiet. It hadn't been exactly uneventful, however. They'd reached that point where it wasn't always necessary to say anything, and, honestly, there wasn't much Kim felt she could say. Some of the things in Shego's past were so dark she couldn't understand how the woman had even stayed sane... although, of course, by her Dragon's own admission, there had been a period when she really hadn't been. When even taking every mind-altering substance she could get her hands on wasn't enough to blot out her memories at night.

What she COULD do was hug Shego... not an invitation to sex or "how ya doin?' hug... just a simply sign of reassurance that she was here.

They had been only a few minutes out from Middleton when Shego had finally spoken.

"What you said about kids being the future."

"Yes?" There were so many ways that could turn, Kim had thought. And her mind had been running through so many of them.

"You're right. And if you start with the children, you can change everything."

"Yeah." So it was to be _THAT_ conversation.

"So I've been on the fence about the whole Advocates thing."

"I think you've been on the fence about ME doing the Advocates thing." Kim corrected. "I believe you said YOU'D do it in a heartbeat, if they'd take you."

"That's because I don't have anything to lose, kitten. You... it could change everything."

"Everything?" Kim had shaken her head to the contrary. "No. It will change some things, but I'm prepared for that. I'm used to risking my life... what do I care what some narrow minded people will think? And the fact that I DO seem to have something to lose is what gives it such power."

"But here's the truth as I see it. The only things that I really couldn't stand to lose are you, our friends and my family. And they're already fine with it."

"So, do I stay safe and let others continue to suffer? To be misled into believing that just because they're different, it means that they're wrong? That they deserve the hate and scorn a handful puts on them, and that they have no way out, no escape except to lie about who they really are?"

Kim had waited to see if Shego was on the same page, before pressing home the final point. "Or do I take the risk and do what I... what WE believe is right?"

Shego had known the answer to that easily enough.

"The one thing..." Kim had finished, "The ONLY thing that will stop me is if you want me to. Do you?"

"No." Shego had spoke after only a second's hesitation. "You're right. As usual. And we'll weather whatever storm follows."

'_Yes, we will,'_ Kim thought, looking at the still form sleeping next to her. _'And as long as I have you at my back, I can do anything.'_

The ridiculously complicated clock said it was 7:30am. That ought to be late enough. She picked up her Kimmunicator, switched it to standard phone mode and hit the number she'd already placed in speed dial.

"Hello? Is Mr. Laska in? Yes, this is Kim Possible. I've spoken with my partner and we're agreed. I'll do it."


	33. Chapter 33

_Author's Note: This is your last chance for a deep breath, 'cause here it comes. Total non-stop crazy from here to… well, a good long ways. I'd say more but… a. I'm a bastard, and b. I'm rather tired of typing after working out all of Brotherson's nut-jobbery. Thanks again for all the reviews and favs. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Doctor Director,Monique, Big Daddy Brotherson, Jack Hench, Senor Senior Junior, Senor Senior Sr., Gemini , Motor Ed, Aviarius, Gill Moss, Jackie the Jackal, The Mathter, Camille Léon, Adrena Lynn, The Lowardians, the Bebes, Monkey Fist, Professor Dementor, DNAmy and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein, Cyn, Peter Laska, Helen Dassak, Seymour Datum, Agent Whithers, Mitch Pitchman, Dora Conquistadora and Hector Henchco all original to this document and free for re-use. Hell-O-Gram, however, is NOT available, being part of a project currently in the works elsewhere. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 33

#####

"I was told you tended to act on things quickly," Peter Laska spoke, looking around in amazement. They were in a small private park about ten miles outside the Middleton city limits, though it now looked more like a small film studio with all the lights and audio gear that had been set up. "But this is ridiculous. It's been what, five hours?"

"It's no big," Kim smiled, and Laska was once again amazed at how the woman simply seemed to glow with charm and confidence. "We were already planning to do some more photo shoots, so the lighting gear was already available, Cyn's a great videographer and at loose ends while her boss, Anna Stein, is in New York, and Monique was able to pull together some people she knew from Club Banana shoots. So not the drama."

"But to be honest," Kim confided, "I really wanted to do it now while my face was okay. I tend to come back from missions a little roughed up, so while the looks are here…"

"Oh, I'm not complaining," Laska grinned, finding it hard to believe the woman ever looked bad. If she was even wearing anything beyond a base and some eyeliner, he couldn't tell, yet she still looked more vibrant than many professional models who'd spent hours in a makeup chair. "In fact, having at least one piece of finished video to show is going to be an unexpected blessing."

"To be honest," The organizer admitted, "As important as we feel it is, we know we're not the biggest cause out there. Doing something like this could be career changing for a professional athlete or politician, and we've been hitting a lot of brick walls. Hopefully, having one highly admired public figure who's not in the entertainment industry onboard and already visibly contributing will make a huge difference in our recruitment efforts."

"I really don't think I'm that big a name, sir," Kim blushed. Did she really believe that, Laska wondered? Shockingly, he rather thought he did. Despite the fact that she'd been the face on the cover of the best-selling calendar of all time and had made People's 50 most beautiful list, the puzzled look in her eyes when he used words like star and icon told him that she really didn't see herself that way. After spending months dealing with many well intentioned but quite full of themselves Hollywood types, Laska had never expected to meet someone so totally the opposite, yet Kim really was so stunningly down to earth that the entire celebrity trip simply mystified her… and THAT was why she was going to be so valuable as an asset. She just had one of those faces you could trust, because she WAS someone you could trust. Which reminded him…

"Um, everyone DID sign a non-disclosure form, right?"

"Yep. Monique has the stack over there. We explained what we were doing and why it would be detrimental for the information to leak out early. Everyone here's sympathetic to the cause anyway, but we've got it covered."

"Excellent," Peter smiled. "In that case, you seem to know what you're doing, so I'll just step back and stay out of everyone's hair."

#####

Big Daddy Brotherson allowed himself a second to relax as he watched the glowing dot move slowly across the screen. Apparently it was true that genius WAS the child of necessity, because this WAS genius. It was beyond that! And he had done it! Not only had the retreat to safe-house four had gone without a hitch, the technical transition had been flawless. All the tendrils of his web still extended into the roots of the world's most confidential information conduits, his eyes still saw into all of its hidden corners where the dirtiest of transactions were born... but now... oh what a difference... he, himself, was also as invisible as the wind.

He had no doubt that at this very minute, the criminal underworld was starting to notice his physical absence. _'Where had he gone?'_ they would be wondering, and why he wasn't there to answer their usual inane, stupid and petty questions: who was stealing from who? which global crime organization was going to be cracking down on what? whose wife was cheating on them? It was all so damn boring! The only real amusement he'd had for years was the little games he'd forced everyone to play. Now they'd all be worrying about what could have caused the spider of the info web to shut his doors, what did HE know that they didn't?

And they SHOULD worry. Because knowledge was power. And as dangerous as the truth by itself could be, its strength multiplied exponentially when applied selectively. Misdirection. Manipulation. And, most deadly of all, when carefully mixed by a master with a liberal touch of its opposite – yes, truth and lies combined, a most lethal cocktail. By the time Brotherson was done, Hench, and the world, would have drunk deeply from that cup. Were it not for the fact that he needed to destroy the man, Brotherson would have dropped to his knees and thanked Hench for the mental push that had taken him to this new level. Though surely it had been the Dark Gods themselves that had actually blessed and inspired the madman…. who else could have caused Hench to make such an insane decision?

But their purpose in doing so was clear. It was time for Brotherson to cease playing a side role in the periphery of evil. For all his ability, he'd been but a passive participant in the great game. An NPC. No, worse... the truth, he admitted, was that he had let himself sink to the level of a mere reference manual, when he could be so much more. Now he would return to his true calling: the Master. And the game he was about to play would use human pieces, brains and muscles substituting for rolls of the die. It was the big one, the opportunity he'd been waiting for all his life.

He licked his lips as he watched the tracer dot on his screen approach its goal. The other packages were already in route, many already received, but this would be the most important one. This was the one that would show Jack Hench what playing the REAL game meant. What TRUE power was.

#####

"You've got a package Mr. Hench."

"What?" Jack Hench looked up from his desk, bristling irritably at his current outer office attendant. He had a secretary as well, but the man he was looking at did the more menial tasks like bring lunch, take out the trash and stand in line while his mail was checked for death threats and explosives. His secretary, who was reserved for more productive tasks like dictation and banging, was currently getting a bikini wax.

"A package sir. Security wasn't sure about it. Scanning shows no explosives but a lot of electronics."

"And you're bothering me with this why?" Hench asked acidly.

"Because it's marked Eyes Only – Ultra-Top Priority and is being held by a Hell-O-Gram courier," The annoying man replied obtusely, completely unaware of how close he was to filling the next replacement hench-request from Gemini. "He says he can only release it to you."

"Yes, right," Hench sighed. Hell-O-Gram only served villains and supervillains and could be trusted not to have delivered an actual death dealing device. In fact, that was one of their many catchy slogans: "Better Read, than Dead." Well, he'd gotten sick of trying to follow where his money was at the moment. Maybe this would be a diversion... or better yet, a hiring request.

"Go on," He growled after the man continued to just stand there. "Tell him to bring it in."

The courier, dressed in the standard all red Hell-O-Gram uniform with the trademarked pointed tail and tiny red horns entered holding one of the company's distinctive Devil's Express overnight packages. A sleek and glossy 10"x18"x3" box, it had the words "Damn Fast" printed on each end, and the top bore the lurid image of their main slogan "Don't say damn it, Hello-O-Gram it!" being uttered by the company's strange mascot, a mouth-less cat with horns, as it sat atop a pile of tortured sinners who'd apparently forgotten to mail their extortion notes and death threats early.

Hench stared enviously at the slick, clean graphics. His own company's attempt at a mascot, Hector Henchco, had proved a horrific and expensive dud, unloved by customers and employees alike. Hench had seldom seen an actual printed image of the nebbish-like character on which someone had not drawn in Hector's hands doing obscene things with his own genitals… and Henchco's current slogan – "Let us Throw a Hench in Your Works" - wasn't wowing anyone either. Why couldn't he get people like this? Okay, his habit of clearing out whole departments to fill demand when someone like Gemini put in a rush order...including at least three times, the entire advertising and art sections… probably didn't encourage creative types to hitch their stars to Henchco. But he had a great, entirely self financed med plan for the ones who survived.

With a sigh, Hench put those thoughts aside and focused on the sender's name section of the label which, as was common with Hell-O-Gram, hadn't been filled in. Well, it had, but he doubted that the letters "Sshhhh!" constituted a valid address anywhere. Terriffic. Jack hated villain wannabes who thought they were clever, but he quickly scrawled his signature on the 'received' statement using the blood-red ink pen offered, then shooed the devil away without giving him the tip he seemed to think was his due. The hell with that!

Once the others had left... his 'what part of eyes-only don't you get?' glare had cleared the office attendant out quickly enough… he pulled the stringy tab off the side of the box and when it broke, as they always did, he cut the whole dame thing open with a piece of evidence that he was supposed to be disposing of that happened to still be on his desk. At long last freed of their constrictive tape and cardboard bindings, the contents of the package rolled out onto his desk.

It was a collection of cell phones. 11 in total, mostly silver with one each in red, black and green, the last of which had a typed note reading _"Open me first! Speed dial 1!"_ taped to its exterior.

_'Someone is too damn clever for their own good,'_ Hench snarled, punching in the assigned number and deciding that, whoever the sender was, that they were going to be billed his full consultancy fee for the time wasted with this silliness. He was still thinking that as he put the phone to his ear. And then he recognized the voice on the other end.

_"Hello Jack,"_ Brotherson's unctuous tones oozed languidly. "_Can I call you that? Well, too late because I already have, but don't worry, no last names. Wouldn't want to leave any conclusive evidence, would we… and on that note, if you're trying to have this traced, don't bother. You're talking to an mp3 player patched into a public phone in Nicaragua." _

Hench glared at the phone. He hadn't bothered with a tap. On a prepaid cell, what was the point? And what the hell was Brotherson doing, playing games like this?

"_Now then, I suppose you're wondering about this little box of trinkets, hmm?" _The recording of Brotherson seemed to 'hear' Hench's thoughts. _"You left me in a quite a quandary, you realize. After I'd disposed of your little messenger I remembered that you'd need to have some way to converse discretely with those who opted to take on your little challenge. Fortunately for you, I'm a genius and this is what I came up with."_

"_We're going to host a little competition Jack. I hope you'll find it as amusing as I intend to." _

#####

Dr. Director's brow creased in frustration as she paced back and forth in the central GJ Control center. There was no doubt that something big was going down. But what?

Big Daddy Brotherson had been holed up in that mausoleum for nearly two years, and it had been GJ Intel's Analysis that he had no intention on moving. However, once Dassak's data on the man's specific favorites list had been paired with huge orders of everything from Snickerdoodles to pecan pralines that were being secretly shipped out of the country, it was readily apparent that the man was in the process of stockpiling literally years worth of forage at some unknown location or locations. What could be so big that Brotherson, who was just an information broker, could be so spooked that he'd plan on going to ground for that long?

He knew something, that was obvious given that it was Big Daddy. But what?

Betty sighed. One thing was certain: they weren't going to figure it out just by analyzing fast food shipments. Catching that tip off had been a fortunate break… fortune in this case being a very attractive and very intelligent inventory officer… but as Helen had suspected, the shipments from the plants and distributors had already ground to a halt by the time she'd caught the data trend, and while many of those products were probably still circling the globe in a complex shell game of blind drops, unscheduled pick-ups and decoys, even if they put every single agent Global Justice had out on the street looking for stray shipments of Cheese-Nots, they'd still have to be incredibly lucky to find the ultimate destinations for any of them.

They'd keep trying, of course, within reason, but the odds were that just as the snackfood shipments were merely been a side effect of Brotherson's pack-ratting activity, it was likely that that activity was itself just a side effect of something much bigger.

So, Betty thought, let's try working backwards. What, or who, would be so dangerous as to scare Brotherson?

Dear God... What if it was the Lowardians? Or, for that matter, the Bebes?

No... to begin with, neither of those were likely to drop information in the complex but very human channels that Brotherson dealt with. And if either HAD been detected somehow, it would have been in Brotherson's interest to squawk before he burrowed. For a fee perhaps, but even a sociopath like Big Daddy was unlikely to consider the genocide of the human race as something that would be beneficial to him in the long term.

Some kind of forecast of a natural disaster? Maybe, but then why the extreme level of secrecy? No, it had to be some form of human threat... or at least vaguely human, considering the rogues list Global Justice routinely dealt with. And on that subject...

"Mr. Datum?" She asked her senior analyst, who was currently pondering the same information. "Can you give bring up a list of the top ten list of most dangerous super criminals currently not in a GJ holding facility and pupt it on the big screen?"

"It'll take me a second... " Seymour, an almost completely non-descript man whose hair and thick glasses changed as frequently as the weather, replied. "Do you want them listed in ascending or descending threat order?"

"Just make it so," Dr. Director ordered. Like many analysts, Datum had a tendency to be rather... anal.

"Yes ma'am," Seymour responded with a few quick keystrokes. "It's coming up now."

Ten names scrolled up onto the 20 foot wide screen at the front of the room. Apparently Datum had ordered them by starting with the highest assigned threat order first:

Gemini

Senor Senior Sr.

Motor Ed

Aviarius

Gill Moss

Jackie the Jackal

The Mathter

Camille Léon

Adrena Lynn

Senor Senior Jr.

Looking at the last three names on the list, Betty wasn't sure whether she should frown or smile. Camille Leon just barely qualified as a super villain and the other two stragglers were really just supervillain wannabes. On the one hand, the fact that this group was the worst that they had to worry about was something of a relief, as only her brother Sheldon, aka Gemini , and Senor Senior Senior were what she would classify as true class A threats. She wished she could say that the reason most of the major supervillains... the Monkey Fists, DNAmys and Dementors... weren't up there was because GJ's enforement wing had been doing a bang up job lately. The truth, however, was that every single one of them had been rounded up by Possible, who was trying to avoid any near future bounty hunter gigs.

On the other hand, except for the aforementioned Gemini and Senior, the Director couldn't see how any of the rest of this motley bunch would be much of a danger to someone like Brotherson. Unless…

Unless it was more than one of them? A proximity check?

"Mr. Datum, can you add the last known location for each of those individuals."

A few more keystrokes and the data modified itself.

Gemini - Upperton

Senor Senior Sr. – Isla Senior

Motor Ed - Middleton

Aviarius – Go City

Gill Moss - Lowerton

Jackie the Jackal – Cairo

The Mathter – Go City

Camille Léon - Upperton

Adrena Lynn - Upperton

Senor Senior Jr. - Unknown

Now THAT was ominous. Seven of the ten had last been seen within the same general area, all within a few hundred miles of...

And then the obvious connection hit her.

#####

_"As you can see,"_ Brotherson's voice continued, _"In addition to this green phone, you also have a red phone, a black phone, and eight silver phones. All of the phones in the box are prepaid, sorted through a variety of long distance providers." _

_"You will note that the silver phones are individually numbered. This is because you will need to keep track of which is which, as each of the silver phones you have has an __**almost**__ identical twin. And in each and every one of these pairs of twins, the phone number of the one you have received has been pre-programmed into the speed dialer of its mate. The mate can call you, but you cannot call the mate until it calls you first, thereby giving you plausible deniability regarding knowledge of the identity of the mate's owner. Why would that be an issue? Because, Jack my friend, those mates to your silver phones are what will be delivered to any contractor or contractors who chooses to take you up on your little task. It's a test that I expect most will fail, needless to say... hence the large number of silver phones."_

_"However, SHOULD a set of contractors complete the assignment, they have been instructed to hit the first button on their speed dialer, which will ring your half of the pair. As you can see, the silver phones are all equipped with the very latest camera and video technology, so they should be able to provide you with preliminary proof simply by pointing it at the… evidence of their Possible success." __Brotherson's voice paused for just a second, and Hench could almost see the smirk he made at the little play on words, mentioning the target by name but in a way that it couldn't be proven to mean exactly what it really meant. _

_"If the results meet your satisfaction, you may then direct them to hit their second speed dial button. That will engage a conference call between yourself, the contractors and one other individual via the black phone… that individual being, as you may have guessed, the Payout Agent that we have previously agreed upon. The number of the Payout Agent, by the way, is also on your Black Phone... speed dial 6, hit it three times. You and he may make your own arrangements as to where and how to make the actual payment and receive your prize. I will have nothing to do with said transaction, I have merely provided the wherewithal for the three involved parties to meet under mutually agreeable circumstances."_

_"A few more details – the other halves of the silver twin phone sets have all been quite cleverly hacked. They will ONLY dial your number twice, after which their memory will automatically wipe and reset. The contractors will have been informed of this, which should keep them from annoying you with anything other than positive news. In addition ALL of the contractor phones have a small explosive charge to discourage tampering. Oh, they can still open the phone, but that would be essentially making a direct call to speak with their maker. In addition, all of those charges can be detonated remotely, should you so choose. That detonation signal, however, can only be sent by the one phone you do NOT have, the White Phone. Who has the white phone? Well, I do. And you can contact the White Phone by using the Red Phone. I should stress that I will not ANSWER if you call using the Red Phone; the act of calling is just a signal. And the ONLY reason for which you may call me is to cancel the participation of an individual player, or to cancel this entire game. To cancel a single player, simply wait for the tone, press the number of the player to be canceled and then the star. Should you choose to do so, I will call the holders of the silver phones and inform them that the game is over by the simple expedient of blowing them up. The phones, that is. I cannot control whether someone is actually holding a phone at the time the detonation code is sent. _

_That said, that action could have the effect of making me an accessory to a something I have recommended against, and, more importantly, is NOT a service that I was initially contracted for. Therefore, to invoke a cancellation, there will be a modest additional service charge that you will be expected to pay for my inconvenience. The fee is one hundred million U.S. dollars per phone canceled or just five hundred million U.S. dollars to cancel the whole game... but wait, there's more. If you act right now, I'll toss in a free set of ever-sharp kitchen knives as a free gift. Feel free to fall on them if you like. _

#####

Dr. Director was about to put words to the connection she saw when suddenly Agent Second Class Whithers ran into the room.

"Dr. Director! Middleton TV! We're feeding it in NOW!"

"Switch it on the main screen" Betty ordered, but Seymour was ahead of her and the image was filled with two typically plastic-looking local newscasters, one semi-distinguished male of the 'late forties/early fifties, probably going to die in this job' type and one dark haired female of the 'late twenties/early thirties aged probably pushing the end of her career arc' type. She was also extremely pissed off about something.

"And we're back in the WTFN newsroom ," the man identified onscreen as Mitch Pitchman was saying. "We're about to go LIVE to our new senior reporter Summer Gale, with her exclusive breaking report on a reported plot target teen hero Kim Possible. Summer?"

Doctor Director felt her breath lock up as Summer Gale, the deranged weather woman who had accidentally created an army of toxic snowmen several years ago… and who had been defeated by Kim Possible… appeared on the screen. At almost the same second, Seymour was throwing up his own data… Gayle had NOT been employed at WTFN as of this morning, so this story must have been her bargaining chip to get back into the business.

"Thank you Mitch," Summer was smiling with the fake white teeth that had made her the most popular 'date' in Women's Correctional 17. "And may I say what a pleasure it is to be joining the fine WTFN news team! "

"Yes, we're glad to have you Summer," Mitch spoke anxiously. "Now what are the details of this exclusive breaking story?"

"Well Mitch," Summer bubbled happily. "This reporter is pleased to report that she has received conclusive and incontestable proof that, even as we speak, multiple teams of assassins contracted by an unnamed third party are currently planning multiple attacks on Kimberly Anne Possible, the same young woman whose Global Rescue made its astonishing debut only a few days ago."

"That's shocking news, Summer." And Mitch DID look shocked. "And what comments do the Middleton police have on this shocking development?"

"Why, they don't have any yet, Mitch," And suddenly Summer's smile was like it had been carved out of ice. "They're learning right now, at the same time you are. Our viewers are literally the first to learn of this…."

"Keep recording!" Dr. Director yelled. "Get Kim on the phone and mobilize all fast response teams. We've got to get her into protective custody NOW!"

######

_"And, last but not least, the final thing you need to know, Jack, is that I know that you've been having some difficulty getting the money for the payoff into place. As a friendly word of advice, you REALLY need to finish that as quickly as you can. You see, the minute you activated this green phone, you sent a 'GO' signal to all the silver phones for the six contractor teams I've picked. The game is afoot, Hench old boy! In fact, the teams may be making Possible contact even as you listen to this message. We wouldn't want them to present a claim and you not be able to pay, would we? They might get angry… might want to know who'd set them up for such a dirty trick. I wonder who'd they call, to find out your true identity? How much they'd pay…? " _

Brotherson's chuckling came over the phone so clearly that it was as if he was actually in the room with Hench. The man was insane, Jack thought. He's gone completely around the bend!

_"Isn't it convenient that I've given you the black phone?" _Brotherson continued. _" I imagine the Payout Agent is probably waiting for your call right now. Or, of course, you could always use the Red Phone... though eliminating some of your best clients… and they DO include some of your best clients… might negatively impact your long term business prospects."_

_"Oh, and on the subject of negative impacts… this green phone? It's served its purpose. Bye bye."_

Jack screamed in pain as the phone in his hand was suddenly engulfed in an impossible electrical discharge that emptied the entire battery in less than 2 seconds, reducing the phone itself to a block of smoking plastic slag. Hench didn't notice. He was too busy shrieking and gasping in agony… and staring at the scorched 3rd degree burns on his hand as they smoked and sizzled.

######

"We've got Possible's phone!" An agent yelled.

"On Main!" Dr. Director commanded.

The sound of a ringer ringing filled the otherwise suddenly dead silent room.

One ring. Two rings… Come on Kim, Pick up….

Three ri…

"Hello?" the whispering voice and face that filled the screen was NOT Kim.

"Monique!" Betty demanded. "Where's Kim?"

"Oh, she's shooting a pu…. a video," Monique smiled, but kept her voice down. "She asked me to hold her phone in case it went off in the middle of a take, but she should be done in just a…"

"No. Listen Monique. You need to interrupt…"

But Monique already wasn't listening.

"Wait. What's that? Oh my God! **OH MY GOD!"**

The phone flew out of Monique's hands and there was brutal crunching noise as it fell to the ground.

And then all they could hear were the screams.


	34. Chapter 34

_Author's Note: Regarding the end of Chapter 33. Please see my author's note at the top of that chapter, where it clearly states "a. I'm a bastard." Do not expect this to change. I like cliffhangers... sometimes they're the only exercise I get. This one COULD have had a cliffhanger but I was feeling generous. Thanks again for all the reviews and favs. Will post again soon. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Monique, Big Daddy Brotherson, Tara, Zita Flores, Aviarius, Gill Moss, Doctor Director, , Motor Ed, Electronique and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein, Cyn, Peter Laska, Priss, Boomer, Antonio all original to this document and free for re-use. Hell-O-Gram is NOT available, being part of a project currently in the works elsewhere and is used with permission. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 34

#####

Big Daddy Brotherson hummed merrily to himself as he sat in his "war" room, staring at the multiple monitors tracing the various phones as they made their deadly dance across North America. Things were going swimmingly! Hell, it was better than Xmas!

Of course, Summer Gale had performed exactly as expected. He'd been stretching credibility to even include her in his initial list, as the single ridiculous incident that had established her supervillain-hood had been as much accidental as intentional... but altering the weather without a permit was and had been a major federal offense ever since the infamous July 4th snowstorm that had frozen twenty to death in Ft. Lauderdale, and her army of killer snowmen had actually inflicted much more damage than the Seniors had ever manage. However, the idea that she would even consider the idea of actually carrying out a contract hit, even against the woman who'd sent her to jail? No, it would have been patently beyond her means or comprehension were it not for Brotherson's brilliant scheme of pairing complimentary pairs of villains, which made it just ever so slightly, in the tiniest bit swallowable. That said, Big Daddy HAD been quite sure he knew the woman well enough to correctly presume that she would instead immediately attempt to turn the information on the phone he had sent her to her personal advantage, using it as leverage in order to return to the news industry that enraptured her. As a result of that action, the news of the Game was out, but accomplished in such a manner that no blame could ever be pushed back up the chain to Brotherson... but now that the news was flowing through the media, the pressure on the individual teams would begin to build. They'd want to move faster, take less time to plan carefully. And when that sort of thinking started, really spectacular accidents began to happen.

Of course, there was one loose end to clean up. Even though Gale had done exactly what he'd anticipated, she really shouldn't be allowed to betray the partner she was SUPPOSED to go to, and Brotherson suspected that the Mathter would probably be QUITE upset if he learned that his chance at the half-billion dollar Possible prize had been stolen by a washed up weather-caster who was SUPPOSED to have contacted him per the instructions on the silver phone she'd received. But how would he ever know…?

Oh, like that, Brotherson grinned as he hit 'send' on the e-mail. He suspected Ms. Gale's return to broadcasting would be a short one, although she would probably be gratified to know that the means of her exit would no doubt be quite headline grabbing.

As for the rest of the teams, Chaos theory seemed to already be taking control of the situation… Brotherson had tried to arrange it so that whoever received the phone would be in a position to contact the other team members quickly, per his enclosed instructions. However, he'd seen no movement at all on two of the phones for over an hour, despite the fact that Hell-O-Gram confirmed delivery and he'd independently verified that the phones were at the correct addresses by the GPS tracers he'd installed in the phones themselves. And then there was that third phone that seemed to be intent on moving itself as far AWAY from its designated partner as possible. What was going on there?

On the other hand, Team 3 had been moving with unbelievable speed. Granted, they had been the geographically closest, but it certainly wasn't the pairing he had expected to be the early leaders. However, if they kept up this pace, they might even score the kill before the others were even in the game at all.

#####

_**Minutes Earlier**_

"So how was that?" Kim asked, unexpectedly feeling uneasy as she finished her first official 'take.' It had seemed fine while she was doing it, but it was also the first time she'd said the words she as she'd rewritten them in her mind, and she might have left something important out, or stressed the wrong thing at the wrong time. Prior to this they'd done several practice shots to set the 'blocking'... rehearsing how she how and when she would move, while saying, more or less, the things she was going to say while Cyn and the Boom Mic Operator (a petite Korean girl who went by the nickname 'Boomer,') were also rehearsing the moves THEY would have to make in order to stay out of each others' way during the final shot. It had taken a few runs through to get to the point where they all knew where they had to be when, but by that point Kim had felt her way through the dialog and knew there were things that weren't exactly the way she would say them if she were simply talking to someone.

So, when she'd found herself saying things in an entirely different order and emphasis than she had during the blocking, it was bound to have thrown the others... although she couldn't SEE any obvious signs that anyone had been bothered by it. Quite the opposite, in fact...

"That was... perfect!" Cyn gushed. "Great eye contact and flow, and I felt that you really emphasized." The blonde videographer stopped and rephrased that. "I mean, I KNOW you do, but even if I didn't I still would have got that feeling, and the times you went off script only made it feel more natural."

"Peter?" Kim asked, wondering if he was the source of her weird vibes.

"Phenomenal!" The man said simply with a huge grin. "Exactly what she said and don't worry about the paraphrasing. It's the meaning of the words that's important, not the letter. HOWEVER..." Kim clinched her teeth for it, she'd KNOWN there was something. "The bad news is that now you're going to have to say it again the exact same way while we grab some different angles, so I hope you remember where you made all those changes."

Oh. Duh. Kim sighed as she realized that he was right and that she REALLY should have written it all down. Still, she had an excellent memory and it had felt pretty natural, so she was about 94% sure she could say it almost exactly the same way. It had just suddenly felt more important to be herself, to communicate with the unseen viewer as if they were someone she already knew, than to precisely hit a list of bullet points.

For not the first time that morning, she was incredibly grateful that Cyn had been willing to take the job of shooting the piece. Having a familiar face, rather than that of some stranger, behind the camera had made relating to the imaginary viewer so much easier, especially after some of the long talks she and Cyn had already had. She'd felt that she might have been pushing their relationship to ask the woman to participate in yet another case of 'pro bono' work, but fortunately, Cyn had actually jumped at the idea.

"Are you kidding?" The blonde had laughed, "First, I've only got one professional video credit to my name and that's because of you, so adding another will only spiff up my resume, and second, it's a really great cause and hanging around you makes a girl start to feel pretty guilty about not contributing enough anyway. Besides," She'd added, grinning evilly. "Ellis is working graves and won't even start to rise from the dead until late this afternoon. By the time she's ready to hit the town, I'll be able to say I've really done my part for a change."

Monique had jumped on board as well, although she'd stressed that it was specifically so that she could add another video shoot to her growing portfolio of accomplishments. An independent producer credit, which is what Monique would be claiming, would be a nice little star to flash as she worked her way up the Club Banana corporate ladder, and her experience on previous CB video shoots had been how she'd known Boomer and their two grips - a tall laconic girl named Priss and a short, round fellow named Antonio. All were all CB part-timers who were trying to build video production resumes in the depressed post-Lowardian market and happened to be on their off-days. It had been a little stressful at first... they'd all been trying extra hard to be as 'professional' as they could at first and it had been like three Junior Will Dus, old version, or as Cyn had muttered, the Three Duooges. Fortunately, after seeing how the less rigid style that Kim, Cyn and Monique favored seemed to actually be more productive, they adapted quickly and finally found a comfort zone that everyone could tolerate.

At the opposite end of the scale in adjustments were two of Monique and Kim's former classmates: Zita Flores and Tara Strong. Kim had been a bit nervous about having her high school friends there as neither were in the tight circle that already knew about her and Shego, so she'd had to address THAT issue before they went into anything else. In fact, it had taken a bit for Kim to get that through to Zita... now their sound recordist... as the Hispanic girl was trying desperately to skirt around her own misconception that Kim and Ron were still a couple. Zita and Ron HAD gone out a few times, and she completely misunderstood Kim the first two times she said "I'm gay." When she'd finally heard it, however...

Well, that had been the second best laugh Kim had had all morning. The best had been the look on Tara's face when she'd learned.

"THAT GREEN GIRL?" Tara had gasped explosively. "OH MY GAWD!" Followed by "So THAT'S why her picture was in your locker!" (Geez, had it really been THAT obvious?)

Actually, the part about Tara's reaction that Kim was having a little trouble dealing with was the girl's not-so-subtle line of questioning thereafter... about whether Kim had been 'checking her out' all the times they'd been in the locker room together and, if so, what had she thought? In fact, it kind of seemed like Tara was turned on by the whole idea and her escalating level of inquiries seemed to indicate that she was gearing herself up for the idea of suggesting a little 'experimentation.'

That was just a little bit more of the drama than Kim was really comfortable with, thank you! But Tara HAD become interested in the whole production process during the calendar shoot and she'd been really sweet in inviting Kim and Shego over after the volcano story broke... an invitation Kim had been putting off for reasons that seemed now to have been considerably less grounded than she had thought. So, when they'd needed bodies, she'd reluctantly gone alone with Monique's suggestion for bringing in their mutual friend as an all purpose go-fer.

It was just a good thing that Shego wasn't here to see Tara going fer it. Though Kim would have liked her lover's emotional support, someone had to man the base camp while Wade and the Twins were finishing the upgrades to Global Rescue One, and a flambéed production assistant would probably have put a damper on the day.

Instead, despite her worst fears, everything seemed to be going perfectly. Even the weather which, despite a forecast of partly cloudy, was conforming to Wade's own prediction of sunny through tomorrow afternoon. The location they'd been fortunate enough to get permission to shoot on... it was owned by Ron's friend Timothy North... would have looked wonderful even under a full overcast, but with the sun shining brightly overhead and the birds chirping lo...

No! That was it! That was what was wrong. The birds had stopped. Completely. Right in the middle of her take. That was what had...

Any further thoughts disintegrated as the giant flying shape slammed into her from above at a speed in excess of 30 miles an hour. Kim felt at least two of her ribs give as she went flying backwards over two dozen feet before colliding with the rocky ground. Thankfully years of experience had taught her to automatically go limp when hit unexpectedly, and her conditioned reflexes brought her into a roll that turned the impact into a controlled tumble that probably only snapped one more rib. Her left arm didn't feel any too good either, but she had a feeling it was best not to worry about that right now... or about the screaming reactions of her friends and film crew. Instead she came up to her feet almost instantly, to confront...

A man in a giant green bird costume. Not a funny haha bird costume but an actually scary bird costume with razor edged wings that extended down off the arms like flattened sleeves, and terminated in huge Shego-like taloned claws... claws that would have just disemboweled her had it not been for the fact that she'd chosen to wear her newest revision of her purple mission uniform for the spot... the bulletproof version that Monique had delivered from the SpaceCenter's ultralooms only yesterday.

But she wasn't the only one who was bullet-proofed. Her opponent's entire ensemble was made from some sort of thick flexible shielding, probably a combination of Kevlar-type fabric and metal plates. And to top it all off, as the literal capper, he also wore an outsized metal helmet crafted in the shape of a bird's skull with huge glowing red eyes, with the man's real face just barely visible through the birdskull's 'screaming' mouth. The end result was like a giant zombie-robot-condor, and it should have been terrifying but she was too pissed to be scared.

"What the hell?" Kim demanded! Okay, it wasn't the most brilliant of opening lines, but she was hurt and angry and she didn't even know this ass...

No... wait...

Oh crap. She did. Who else could it be?

"Aviarius?" She gasped in disbelief as he advanced on her, razor talons outstretched.

#####

"Oh my God! OH MY GOD!" Monique screamed as the winged monster smashed into Kim and her friend went flying limply back towards the jagged rocks at the edge of the clearing. She'd barely had time to register that the hero was mostly unharmed, that Kim was up and standing again when something snapped Monique's wrist backwards with a sickening sound of shattering bone and the phone went flying.

Monique didn't have time to worry about that. She turned to face a nightmarish monster that had just slapped the Kimmunicator out of her hand, something that might have once been a man but now looked like the worst dregs of a swamp distilled and poured into a shambling, grotesque slime-covered travesty of the human form.

"GILL!" Tara screamed in terror!

The creature that had once been Gil Moss... and still occasionally responded to that name... switched its attention briefly from the girl on the phone (threat 1) to the girl who knew its name (threat 2) and the girl with the camera, still shooting behind them both. The third girl was probably the lowest threat, but she was the closest to a solid surface, so with a horrifying liquid-ratcheting sound, he heaved up a huge quantity of mucous from his bog-filled lungs, splattering the blonde with such force that she slammed backwards to a tree where she stuck solid. Gill hadn't had a mate in a long time and he liked the looks of this one. Of all three actually. Once they'd done what they'd came to do, he'd come back and change all of them.

But now the dark girl was running. He couldn't allow that and, despite his low, slouching gait, he was still far faster than any normal human. He was on her in a second, throwing her to the ground and cementing her down with another expulsion of phlegm. Now, the other blonde or... no! The Asian girl... or the Hispanic? It was so frustrating! So long with nothing and now so much opportunity! He could feel his mating organ distending, uncoiling as he went after the blonde after all. She was the next closest and if he couldn't pass his genes along at this very second, at least he could rub himself against her while he glued her down!

######1

Aviarius cackled in a combination of avian anger and raptor-like rapture as he stalked towards his prey! Things had been going perfectly had he'd been sure of a certain, easy kill! Oh, he still was confident that he'd finish his feminine foe off with feathered finality, but now he was going to have to depend upon his so-called partner to watch his back... and that was the one part of this whole plan he had grave reservations about.

After his last denigrating loss to Team Go and his ironic subsequent escape from prison... he'd carved a dove out of a bar of soap for his own amusement, only to discover that one of the guards had such an extreme case of Ornithophobia (fear of birds) that Aviarius had been able to simply walk out of the prison while holding the bird to the guard's neck... he'd sworn that it would be his last defeat. No more silly giant flamingos, no, he'd invest in REAL fighting technology, and he'd literally sold everything he had owned under all three of his remaining undiscovered aliases in order to raise the funds. A year later, after some extremely hard times where he'd slept in the back of a stolen egg delivery van and lived on a diet of ramen and Bueno Nacho, he'd finally been ready to take Team Go on again, only to discover that... they were gone! Even more astonishing, the Go Tower was not just empty but partially destroyed and abandoned! At first he'd flown into a full feathered fury, thinking that some other foe had beaten him to the task, but further investigation had left him even more gobstruck than a gull. Unbelievably, Aviarius had apparently completely missed an entire alien invasion that had ended up with Shego actually being pardoned, whereupon she'd vanished off the face of the Earth! Oh, HeGo was still around, but HeGo was like pigeons – a damned nuisance but no real threat. It was the one he really wanted, the bitch who'd tossed his nest, who'd riled his roost like no other, who had been no where to be found. Until just a few days ago.

As soon as the news had broke that the green beauty had resurfaced in Middleton, Aviarius had flown as straight as a crow to the city to await his chance. By then he'd learned that ex-hero-now-hero-again had made some kind of permanent business deal with the Possible woman... who, now that he thought about it... had been equally to blame for his last ignominious defeat. That had complicated things, as while he was sure he could defeat either by themselves, they'd seemed to be always together. He'd wondered if that could have been because they suspected he was out there, watching for them, but there was no way anyone could have known where he was... or so he'd thought.

He'd been quite stunned this morning to find a Hell-O-Gram courier sitting outside his van with a package, and even more stunned to learn of the reward he could stand to earn. More importantly, his benefactor... and Aviarius knew full well who it was from the broad hints that he'd been given... had let him know that there was another individual who would be the perfect partner. The beastly creature was actually after that dim-witted sidekick of Possible's, which was just fine with Aviarius. Gill could have the boy and Aviarius would have Shego... once they'd split the spoils from gutting Possible and serving up her head to their client.

A few hours work, a quarter of a billion dollars in his pocket... possibly more, he doubted Gill could count above six... and then he'd have Shego all alone, at his mercy. No one could escape the eye of his hummingbird drones... that's how he had so quickly both found Gill and tailed Possible to this remote location... and his new BattleBird suit was literally death from above! He wasn't sure how Possible had even survived his first strike, but she wouldn't be so lucky again.

'_Yes,'_ he crowed, _'time to finish this!'_ Spreading his arms in a cape of death, he launched the flying feather daggers from his wings!

#####

Kim barely had time to analyze what was happening before twenty razor-edged featherblades were flying towards her. She had no idea if the invisible armor in her clothing could stop them, but as her mind fired into adrenaline powered superdrive, she realized that the wing-blades were obviously designed and intended to be used mostly while in flight, and like any side mounted projectile weapon, there was a certain amount of angling that had to be done in order for the blades to converge as a group on their target. So instead of dodging to the left or to the right, she ran straight forward, into the 'clear' section of the 'V' and it almost worked, with most of the razors completely missing her and crossing behind to shatter across the rocky ground. One got through, however, and she felt the searing agony in her right shoulder it skated along the edge of the top of her arm. Yep, these things COULD cut her armor, though she suspected that had she not been in the new suit, she'd now be missing an arm. As it was she felt the flesh give and the blood begin pouring down, but it was thankfully only a light graze compared to what could have happened.

She wasn't sure whether Aviarius just hadn't twigged to the fact that he had almost completely missed at point blank range, or if he was simply stunned in shock by the fact that he had. Either way, he was still standing there with his arms spread wide in 'firing mode' and that was too good an opportunity to pass up. With a scream of pain and rage, Kim threw herself left foot-first into the birdman's wishbone, using the footing found as a base to launch a second savage kick that went up under his ribcage. It hurt like hell on impact, confirming her theory that the armor was partially metal, but the "GURK!" of pain she heard as a result made it worth the potential broken toes.

But during the micro-second brief respite she gained as the craven criminal fell back, she finally noticed the second advancing threat. GILL! 'Damn, when it rains, it fucking pours,' she thought, looking for something to block the inevitable projectile vomit of ooze the man-toad was already working up. There! One of the portable reflectors! Made in the same fashion as the collapsible shades made for auto windows, the reflector was a huge aluminum disc approximately five feet in diameter. Perfect.

Aviarius was still on his back. She might have enough time for this. Dodging, rolling and grabbing the reflector... and grimacing in pain as the action worked raw dirt and gravel into the still open wound on her arm... she brought the disc up like a shield just in time to catch the adhesive volley. And now for the tricky part...

Charging Gill, she began collapsing the reflector into a huge cone with the still congealing ooze on the outside point. Gill was just in the middle of huffing and puffing up his next launch when Kim surged into him, shoving the giant cone completely down his throat and releasing it!

Gill's eyes bulged and his entire head took on an extremely disc-like appearance as the reflector attempted to unfolded back to its orginal shape. Better yet, the nearly congealed goo met the fresh goo and the two combined to form a massive plug that completely sealed off the ex-human's frog-like mouth! He MIGHT be able to clear it given time, but that was time Kim didn't intend to give him. A quick sideways glace showed that Aviarius was still on the ground but starting to move. He wasn't down by a long shot. This had to be FAST!

Given Gill's healing abilities and thick covering of slime, Kim doubted her boot knives were sufficient to slow him down, so in a single motion she pulled out her weapon of last resort... her thick leather belt... and made an improvised whip, buckle out.

"Surrender Gill," She commanded, "Or it's going to get ugly."

"mgggmph!" Gill replied, his mouth filled with reflector and his own regurgitated ooze. Unfortunately, he also extended his retractable claws and leaped at Kim while doing so. _'Had he always had those?' _Kim wondered, _'Or was that a new mutation?'_

Not really important right now.

"Sorry! Forgot you were already ugly!" She cracked her belt and the buckle end caught Gill's left arm neatly, from which it was a simple move to leap over his head and pull him back by yanking back on his own arm...

Which came off.

Now it was Kim's eyes that bulged in shock, as, unbelievably, Gill's arm simply popped off with a sound like you hear when twisting the drumstick off a turkey. And then the damn thing started twitching about on the ground, all by itself, like a severed lizard's tail.

That was a new one too.

And really gross.

But if the loss of a limb affected Gill in any manner other than further pissing him off, it wasn't apparent, and his arm had taken her belt with it.

"Kim!" shouted a familiar voice. It was Boomer. Stepping from behind a tree where she'd taken cover, she held up her microphone boom... a long extendable length of carbon-fiber and steel.

"Throw it!" Kim yelled, leaping to intercept the currently five-foot long staff and bringing it up as a rotating, whirling instrument of extreme punishment. Gill wisely backed off, but as soon as he had, she untwisted the locking mechanism and the boom extended to its full twelve feet. With a rapid one-two, she rapped the swampdweller smartly on both sides of the forehead. He went down...

Just as Aviarius was coming back up. Grabbing the first thing she could find to throw... which happened to be Gill's severed arm... she tossed it in his face, where, still wiggling, it wedged in the 'mouth' of his skullhelmet. Flinching and screaming in total disgust, Aviarius flailed blindly, trying to pull his partner's unhelping hand out of his face. That gave Kim time to get really moving.

Crowing with rage, Aviarius had finally disarmed himself and was now swiveling as fast as he could, trying to aim more feathers at Kim. But once again, the fact that his weapons were really designed for long distance and flight undid him. If he'd been in the air, he'd have nailed Kim for sure, but from the ground, hampered by his own lack of speed and agility, she was dodging far too nimbly and running far too quickly for him to even track, let alone hit. And then she was at her goal, the so-called craft services table, which was film speak for the place where they kept the snacks. Her first choice of weapon was more symbolic than practical, and a half dozen boiled eggs soiled Aviarius's pretty armor.

The psychological effect was just as Kim had hoped, though. Whatever thin strand of restraint had been keeping Aviarius in focus snapped and instead of standing back and using his distance weapons, he came at her with talons slashing!

Which was really what she wanted. As he brought his talons up, she tossed an extremely well shaken bottle of soda directly onto the pointed tips. The thin plastic exploded in a burst of foam that splattered into Aviarius' eyes, letting her dart in to close-contact range. And just as importantly, it told her what she need to know about the talons themselves. Sharp, but no energy effect.

"No Plasma?" She asked, mockingly, as, using the boom pole to launch herself again, she unleashed a rapid series of kicks interspaced with two-handed staff jabs that kept him using his talons to protect himself rather than attack her.

"No!" Aviarius snarled. "But it doesn't matter. This suit was designed to take down even Hego! You can't defeat me!"

"Oh yeah?" Kim grinned savagely, finally getting the shot she wanted and thrusting the point of the boom pool through the mouth of the skullhelmet. There was a wonderful 'thokking' sound as it impacted with Aviarius unprotected head inside. She did it twice more for good measure and watched the man stagger drunkenly.

'_Enough,'_ she thought. _'I may still have to deal with Gill, then free the others..." _ But she couldn't resist one final parting shot.

"You know, if you'd said it could take down SHEGO I might have been worried," she growled as a final sideswipe with her right leg took Aviarius' feet out from under him for the last time.

"Oh Flock!" he whimpered, and collapsed to the ground.

Now gasping for breath and feeling light-headed from pain and blood loss, Kim turned back to Gill.

Yep. He'd gotten up again.

And went right back down as Peter Laska clobbered him with a two by four.

"You know," Laska smiled, obviously embarrassed that it had taken him so long to help out. "I think this boy is in SEVERE need of counseling."

"Yeah," Kim flashed her teeth in response, then reached into her boot and pulled out one of her knives. "Think you can help free the others while I talk to Doctor Director? I think she was calling me about something important."

"Get Monique and Tara first," Cyn yelled from behind her camera. Good God, even stuck to the tree, the woman had never stopped filming!

"What?" Cyn looked back at Kim's incredulous stare. "Hey, SOMEONE's got to give Anna a run for the Emmies this year!"

#######

GJ Minimum Holding Security – Middleton Facility

The huge mulleted man read the sign again, then looked at the notes he had copied down. Then looked back at the sign.

"Seriously? MINIMUM security? What kind of supervillain is in minimum security?"

It didn't really matter though. Half a billion dollars was half a billion dollars. If he was willing to cut Red's pretty little head from her body for half of that amount of money, he'd put up with whoever Mister _'You Know Me – Hint Hint – Who's going to Win Miss Motorqueen 2009?' _was insisting on pairing him up with.

Besides, this was the chick's side of the facility. He was a righteous looking supervillain, and if being a babe behind bars without any man-candy, she'd no doubt be feeling mighty GRATEFUL for his busting her out. That ought to be good for at least second base, right?

Revving the six paired V12 engines of his massive Destructo-Master-Monster-Truck-3000 Mark. VI, Motor Ed slammed all twelve giant tires into forward gear and smashed through the outer retaining walls of the prison like they were made of that crumbly Styrofoam stuff that really fragile things like headlights and disco globes are packaged in. The half dozen Global Justice guards that tried to stop him were just as easy to handle. He drove over three, then, having passed the main cluster, gunned his massive exhausts all simultaneously. Engulfed in the huge cloud of carbon monoxide, the remaining guards fell to the ground.

"Okay, let's see..." Motor Ed was trying to read his notes while driving, flattening several walls, vehicles and a porta-potty while his attention was off the road. "Oh yeah, this one here. ROCK ON!"

The left side of the DMMT300MVI's mighty curbfeelers screeched along the wall of the building itself, and the foot and a half thick walls gave way.

"Da da da da da da da!" Ed screamed in victory as he through open the cabin and looked at the small woman staring up at him in shock. She didn't look very glad to be rescued.

Oh, what was that next step? That's right.

Ed pulled out the OTHER item that had been in the box with the phone, aimed it at the woman and pressed the red button. That should change her attitude!

"Oh most righteous babe," Motor Ed spoke down in his best slaughtering of pseudo-Shakespeare. He knew chicks dug that kind of stuff. "Would you care to join me for a rocking night of killing Kim Possible, carefree and unprotected sex, air guitar and, best of all, a bonus prize of a quarter billion dollars EACH?"

"Honey, you had me at Kill Kim Possible," laughed Electronique, as she scrambled up into the cab. "And get ready to whip off those pants, big boy! It's been a LONG goddam time and I've been WAY too good!"


	35. Chapter 35

_Author's Note: Some VERY mature stuff in this one. Be forewarned. More villains entering the fray. Avoid reading ye legal stuff to avoid spoilers. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Jack Hench, Summer Gale, Monique, Big Daddy Brotherson, Tara, Aviarius, Gill Moss, Doctor Director, Will Du, Ron Stoppable, Yori, Adrena Lynn, Motor Ed, Electronique, Gemini, Team Impossible, Camille Leon and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein, Cyn, Peter Laska, Priss, Boomer, Antonio all original to this document and free for re-use. Hell-O-Gram is NOT available, being part of a project currently in the works elsewhere and is used with permission. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 35

#####

Jack Hench stared at the TV screen in horror. It was on the NEWS? ALREADY? What the hell had that nutjob Brotherson been doing, taking out ads?

As the huge plastic grin of Summer Gale (and why did that name ring a bell?) filled the screen, dishing out the basics of the plan that Brotherson's recorded voice had explained to him less than an hour ago, Hench felt his entire body clinching up in anger... something that was quite a mistake as far as his still swollen and oozing hand was concerned, the compression around the ice pack he was holding driving the internal cubes into the raw and bleeding flesh.

"DAMNIT!" He screamed, throwing the ice-pack across the room where it shattered a very expensive statue which should have been in the Louvre.

He ought to cancel this whole thing right now, but the only way he had of doing so was to pay Brother's outrageous blackmail price... and he COULDN'T! Every spare bit of cash he'd had was still out there in transit!

His anger kept building as what had happened AFTER his hand had been roasted by the melting-down Green Phone rushed back into his mind. He'd barely had time to wrap his palm and call for a Hench-Medic when the BLACK phone had rung. The Payout Agent. And if there was ANYBODY on the planet he couldn't afford to make angry, this was it.

"Yes," he'd gasped, awkwardly holding the phone as gingerly as he could with the OTHER hand, while trying to keep it as far away from his head as he possibly could. God only knows what THIS phone might do.

"Ah, Mister Hench," the voice at the other end had spoke with a chiding tone, obviously recognizing his voice. Damn it! Between the pain and the surprise, Hench had forgotten to attach a goddamn voice scrambler on it! "I rather thought it would be you. I imagine this is a bad time, but we have a financial situation we need to resolve."

"The money will be there," Jack had promised.

"I certainly hope so," the agent had replied smoothly, his voice like a knife sliding into Hench's soft underbelly. "Of course, we understand why you prefer to deal in cash and anonymity, but we understand that you've now given the signal for the teams to move into the field and... well..."

Hench couldn't admit that he hadn't even known what he was doing when he'd used the Green Phone. That would be an admission that he didn't have the situation under control... and he DID! He DID! So he'd made as many soothing sounds as he could and the Agent had finally, reluctantly, given him a little more time.

Time that had obviously just ran out, now that everybody in the world knew about Brotherson's little game.

No, he corrected himself. For better or for worse, it was Hench's game now. At least until he could have his own people locate Brotherson and find out WHO had the silver phones.

SHIT! Summer Gale! NOW he remembered where he knew the name from! She was an ex-villain, a third-rater who'd been put away by Possible! That was how she'd had the 'exclusive details,' she was one of the hit people... or had been? Or still was? Was it all part of some even bigger plan? Whatever it was, it meant that Brotherson had been entrusting the details of Hench's game to people who were barely competent! And if SHE'd been... was... one of the contracters, who the hell else might have made Brotherson's list?

God, how could it get any worse?

The black phone rang.

Oh, of course, THAT'S how it could get worse.

"Shit," He swore, grabbing the phone and remembering to switch on the belatedly added voice encoder. For all the good that it would do now. "Yes."

"Mister Hench, have you been watching television?"

"Yes..." Jack heard his own voice come out in a strange, weepy tone. "Yes. I'm watching it now."

"Then I won't have to explain. We require payment in full. Now." God, how could that voice sound so calm and yet so predatory? "Or we will be forced to deal with you in a way I'm sure you will find quite unpleasant."

"How can I handle this?" Jack broke. Where the hell was he going to get the money?

"Oh, that's simple," The 'GOTCHA' sound in voice on the other end was palpable. "It's a bit late for a check, but I believe our records show that you have a Black Plutonium Card?"

"Yes. Yes." With his shaking wounded hand, Jack took the card he'd sworn NEVER to use out of his wallet and read the numbers to the voice on the other end. It could be worse. He now had thirty days in which to recover the cash that was already floating around the world. He could do that. It wasn't so bad.

Except he couldn't help but be terrified wondering what OTHER shoes Brotherson had out there, waiting to drop.

######

"And you're only telling me that we have a courier waiting in the lobby for me NOW?" Sheldon Director, better known as Gemini, gave his current Agent Beta a look that could scorch flesh. "A HELL-O-GRAM COURIER?

"You... you said you weren't to be disturbed," the recently promoted Beta quivered. "Under ANY circumstances!"

Without another word, Sheldon pulled a small gun... a Beretta 418... from his pocket and shot Beta between the eyes.

"You should have read between the lines," He added, a bit belatedly. "This could be a JOB offer!"

And that's how far the mighty WEE had fallen. Between the near destruction of his organization and the capture of his clone by Global Justice (and would no one EVER catch on to that trick? He'd been pulling it ever since seeing Diamonds Are Forever,) the Worldwide Evil Empire had been sadly downgraded to Worldwide Evil Enterprises, a contractor firm for more successful villains. Except that they'd never had a customer and the money in the emergency bank account had long run dry. Currently floating on the last dregs of a hardship loan from the Friendly, Friendly Bank and Trust, WEE had been forced to move from their lavish lair with its wonderful deathtraps and pits to drop unsuspecting Betas down, to this... tiny space in a suburban strip center they shared with a Nail Grooming Salon and a Kwik-E-Mart. It wasn't just humiliating, it had a no pets policy! That meant his most trusted advisor, Pepe had to stay back at the apartment, where Sheldon was positive he was being molested by that Great Dane next door. And then the unreasonable landlord forbade any modifications to the foundation, so no tunnels, no trapdoors to drop unsuspecting Betas, nothing! And privacy? There was practically none whatsoever! Besides Sheldon's tiny office... which had formerly been the ladies room... the now unisex/formerly men's restroom was the only secure area in the entire facility! If he took a single hostage, no one would even be able to pee!

And it also meant that he had just shot Beta in full view of both the Hell-O-Gram courier and his twenty remaining agents... all of whom had been lounging about on folding chairs and drinking Kwik-E-Generic Kolas.

"Mr. Gemini?" The pointy-horned Courier asked brightly. "I have a package for you."

"Yes, so I heard." Sheldon put on his best smile, taking the box and signing for it. "Sorry about the wait."

"Not a problem," The Devil grinned. "I took advantage of the time and made an appointment at the nail salon. Next in line, as it happens."

"Oh good," Sheldon tried to look pleased, though he was thinking more about what to do with the dead Beta. One trap-door to a burning pit, was that so much to ask for?

Following his eyeline, the man in red looked up with a mercenary look. "You know, we can handle that for you."

"Really?"

"Oh yes, it's part of our 'Let the Devil Take It Away' plan. Hold on." The horned man shuffled through his papers and found a large stack of stickers, one of which he slapped on the ex-Beta's back, then handed five to Sheldon. "This one's on us, just to introduce you to the program. I'm just a drop off person, but there'll be a pick up team through in an hour or so, and if you need any further removals, just slap on a sticker and call the 800 number on this price sheet."

"Hmm." Sheldon looked over the terms. They were actually quite reasonable. He looked up and counted how many agents he still had lounging with their Kolas. "Could I have 15 more of those?"

"Not a problem," the Devil handed over the extra sheets and departed for his manicure.

Suddenly the remaining twenty agents had found a whole lot of busy work to do. Good. Those front windows were filthy.

Chuckling evilly, Sheldon returned to his office. He knew what had to be in the box. He'd been watching TV, and knew that if ANY organization was going to be hired to terminate Kim Possible, WEE would be the ones to land the contract. And he had just enough credit on his Plutonium Card that he could afford to do it right.

#####

"Finally!" Brotherson sighed as his monitors indicated that the silver phone he'd sent Gemini had finally been switched on. That left one phone still unactivated and the mysterious path of the phone for team 4, which according to the tracers was now at...

He looked at the address on his computer again. That couldn't possibly be right! Her designated partner was nearly a thousand miles in the other direction. Why would she have gone THERE?

And then he thought about who and what was located at that address and the grin that split his face would have been one to give Jack Hench nightmares for the rest of his life.

Oh, yes... THIS was going to be INTERESTING.

######

"And you want to hire US?" The tallest man, the defacto leader of the group, looked at the young woman with a mixture of suspicion and disbelief.

She'd been an attractive woman once. That was before a prison fight with crudely made knives had left a jagged scar down the right side of her face, taking with it the sight in that eye. She still had the eye itself, but the vision was gone and the entire orb had gone a ghastly, milky white. It was shocking enough that one tended to overlook the two missing fingers on her left hand.

"That's right," Adrena Lynn repeated cooly. "Anyone with half a brain could see that the partner originally been selected for me was picked by someone with a sick sense of humor."

At the man's raised eyebrow, she elaborated. "Look, I've tried working with that bitch before and it was a disaster. Because she was a bitch. Everytime I came in for a meeting, she was already wearing the same makeup and hairstyle I was, but making it look BETTER, just to prove that she could. And in any case, a spoiled little daddy's girl like Camille Leon would never have the guts to actually put the knife in Possible."

"I, on the other hand, am looking forward to shoving it in and pulling out her entrails," Adrena's expression was worse than that of a madman's... it was the face of a flawlessly rational and intelligent woman who knew exactly how evil and savage her plans were... and simply didn't give a damn. "I don't just want that cheerleader dead. I want her broken and begging for mercy as I cut off each one of the fingers and pluck out eye she owes me. And I'm not stupid enough to think I can do it by myself or with the aide of that face-changing whore."

"So," She growled. "I'm restacking the deck in my favor. Do you think the client really cares who holds the knife that does the cutting? And for the payoff we're talking about, I can't believe you're even hesitating to take me up on it."

The second man, shorter, stockier but no less menacing, finally spoke. "But that's not what we do. We're..."

"Mercenaries," Adrena retorted. "Anything for money, despite all your ads to the contrary. I have friends with the Lotundan Guerilla's you've been helping smuggle arms to, and there's that heroin shipment you supposedly busted last year that never made it to the Feds."

"Hell," Adrena scowled scornfully at the men, "If you were really good guys, you wouldn't have that 'no questions asked, no secrets revealed' policy. Do you think I would have told you all of this if I'd thought there was a chance in the world you'd turn me in? Of course you won't. Because that would RUIN your precious reputation with your real customers."

"But make no bones about it, gentlemen. I know what you are. The only question we're dealing with now is the pay out."

"The three of us, for half of the half-billion dollars?" the dark skinned man's expression was hard to read. He looked less... interested... than his partners. More cautious.

Adrena sighed. She'd known it would come to this. She'd grown up a lot since spending a year in hell courtesy of Kim Possible. A year that had taken her looks and any hope of the entertainment career and future she'd once dreamed of. If the men could see her body they'd know the full story. How once you win one knife fight, there's always someone else waiting to take you down. But the men didn't need to see those scars. That privilege she was reserving for Possible, and as she revealed each, she'd inflict the same on the redheaded bitch. Cut by fucking cut, until her head came off in mid-scream.

"No, gentlemen," Adrena promised. "I'm talking about equal splits. One hundred Twenty Five million for each of us."

"And," She continued, the ice in her voice matching the cool fury running through her veins, "You get to settle your own scores PLUS take out your major competitor."

The three men looked at each other. Business had been worse than horrible in the wake of the Lowardians, especially since Possible and Global Justice had been doing the work THEY charged for, for free.

And there was this new Global Rescue. That would further cut into their bottom line. This option, while drastic, would both put some badly needed funds in their own pockets and eliminate the greatest thorn in their sides once and for all.

"Let's say, for the point of argument, that we WERE willing to do it," The Leader spoke carefully. "How would we go about making sure that no one ever knew that we were involved?"

"I thought you were Pros," Adrena scoffed. "Wear disguises and use a different name. Eliminate any witnesses to event who might recognize you. How hard is that?"

The leader looked at his partners. They were in. He could see it.

What the hell. He'd been wanting to hold Possible down while his fingers crushed her trachea ever since she'd snaked her first client from them. Truth be told, he'd have done it for half the price.

Dash Demond, de-facto head and spokesperson for Team Impossible reached into his pocket, pulled out a very illegal cigar and jammed in his mouth with a jaunty grin. A new name, huh? The choice was obvious.

Possible was a dead woman walking as of this moment. But she'd be burned, bled and broken first, and he realized he was looking forward to being part of the team that did it.

"Congratulations, Ms. Lynne," Dash Demond extended his hand to their new employer. "You've just hired the K-Team."

#####

"What the FUCK, Princess?" Shego fumed as she pushed the gurney Kim was lying on down the hallway. "You went to shoot a goddamn VIDEO and came back with four broken ribs, a fractured ulna and needing eighty stitches?"

The green woman, who had just unceremoniously taken the place of... pushed aside, really... the orderly who HAD been wheeling Kim from the operating theatre of the Global Justice infirmary, glared at her human target of a girlfriend with the kind of irritation that only someone who really loves someone could muster up. It was the first time they'd seen each other since the hasty medivac from the video shoot site, where Shego, who together with Ron had actually arrived BEFORE the twenty GJ Strikers, had reluctantly watched her lover being flown off in the much larger GJ vehicle along with the rest of the film crew while Shego and her smaller GR hover had drawn the more dangerous duty of taking Aviarius and Gill to the holding area. It was eminently logical on the simple basis that if anyone could put the two villains back down should they get... uppity... it was her... but the fact that it had been logical hadn't made her any happier about it, just as Ron was probably equally as displeased at having to stay behind with the displaced striker team now guarding the actually attack scene until a forensics crew could arrive.

Exactly what a forensics crew was needed for, Shego had no idea, given that Cyn's video had captured about 85% of what had happened, more than enough to put both villains away for a long time, and the attackers had clearly arrived only after the crew had been there for several hours. Still, logic said that if there was a chance there was some kind of incriminating evidence of something left behind, it made sense to look for it.

It was the same unlikable logic that had led them to using the GJ medical facility rather than Middleton General, as given the circumstances it was felt that taking Kim back to the public hospital would have only been placing the other patients in far too much danger. It was entirely possible that a more hands-off assassin might actually attempt to take out the entire hospital with a missile or bomb strike rather than attempt to take on the now formidable defenses martially around the teen hero. Shego would have personally preferred a direct flight back to Global Rescue, where Will was currently holding down the fort along with a second team of GJ Strikers, as the medical facilities there would have sufficed for the miraculously minor injuries incurred by everyone besides Gill, who seemed to be in the process of growing a new arm anyway. However, after a brief but heated debate, Kim and Shego had finally acquiesced to Doctor Director's insistence that returning to GR until that entire area had been cleared of any other lurking assassins was probably not a good idea. That was the task that Yori and a THIRD GJ Strike team was currently carrying out.

"72 stitches," Dr. Mrs. Possible corrected automatically as she trotted alongside, still finalizing her work. "We sealed the rest with Krazy Glue." It wasn't actually Krazy Glue, aka ethyl-2-cyanoacrylate, of course, but Anne had started using n-butyl cyanoacrylate to patch up her daughter at a time when it hadn't yet been cleared for human use and could only be legally used by veterinarians. For a highly skilled doctor with a... problem child... like Kim, it had been simply far more practical to keep a bottle of VetBond handy than resorting to stitches on a nearly weekly basis. However, saying you were using VetBond on your child would have raised some eyebrows, and as Anne found the Krazy part of the name particularly appropriate at times, it had become the term she and Kim always used in public, where most people would have assumed it was just a joke.

But it wasn't a joke, and as she turned her eyes to the green woman with a tired sigh of experience, they once again found that common bond. "And it was just three ribs... I don't know how she got the other one, but it was already mostly healed. It doesn't get any easier, I'm afraid, so get used to it."

As one, both women gave Kim 'the look,' which was essentially the inverse of the puppy dog pout, a 'why must you be you?' frustrated glare.

"You know, I didn't put a bounty on my own head," Kim grunted as her mother finally finished wrapping her left arm with the fast-setting plasticast. At this point, Dr. Possible could probably have splinted her daughter's arm in her sleep... come to think of it, she thought she might have.

"Yeah, it's not as if she planned this," Monique added, waving her own fractured wrist for emphasis without thinking as she rolled alongside Kim in a second gurney. She'd just come from corrective surgery in theatre 2, where the resident GJ Surgeon Vivian Session had realigned her broken bones while Kim's mother put Kim back together in T1. Now they were bound back to the larger main infirmary recovery room, where Tara, the other film crew and Peter were all being treated for shock and their comparatively lesser cuts and scratches. Besides Kim, Monique had gotten the worst of it... primarily because Gill had become too distracted and had gone after Kim before securing the rest of the film crew and doing... whatever it had been that he'd been planning on doing. Monique had felt the 'excitement' the barely human creature was exhibiting and, despite her defense of her friend, there was a scared look in her eyes as the fact that simply being friends with Kim had made her a target slowly sank in. She'd seen Kim fight before, had even helped on some missions, but she'd never seen anything like watching a bleeding and bloody Kim take down two deadly adversaries in what she already knew was an unusually vicious fight... And then they'd learned about the newscast, and what would have happened had Kim lost.

"They're not mad at me, Mo!" Kim interjected. "They're mad at the situation. We've known there were crazies out there after me, but this... "

"A half billion dollars!" Shego exploded again. "When I find the son of a bitch who put up that bounty I'll..."

"You'll wait for us to arrest them," Dr. Director interrupted, coming down the hallway towards them and then dropping in step. "Unfortunately we have no idea who that is. Yet."

Dr. Director looked at Anne, the orderlies and Monique. All of whom immediately got the drift.

"We'll meet you at the infirmary breakroom," Anne said quietly, the knowledge that, even as Kim's mother, she didn't meet the requirements of NEED to know, clearly infuriating her. "Come on Monique. Let's give them their privacy.'

"No." Kim overrode Dr. Director. "Stay mom. Please."

Kim turned back to Betty and waited for a response.

And Betty gave, nodding once in acquiescence, then motioned for the orderlies to go on ahead.

"So let me guess," Kim sighed. "They're not talking?"

"No," Dr. Director shook her head. "Gill is, but he claims he never knew who they were working for and didn't care. We're not even sure if Aviarius knows or not, but from the way he's clammed up, I'd say he's more frightened of whoever it might be than anything we could do to him."

"What about Gale?"

"Still claiming immunity as a member of the press."

"But you didn't come running down here to tell us what you didn't know," Shego grimaced. "Which I assume means more bad news."

Betty nodded. "Gale reported that there were multiple assassin teams, and we're pretty sure we know who the second team is. About thirty minutes ago, Motor Ed broke Electronique out of the Middleton GJ holding facility. Ten guards were injured, five seriously wounded and two dead."

"That's not Motor Ed's M.O.," Shego looked very unsettled.

"M.O.?" Monique asked.

"Modus Operandi," Shego translated, unable to even work up a smirk. "Usual methodology."

"And apparently this IS his M.O. when there's five hundred million dollars up for grabs," Kim corrected, then shook her head in disbelief. "But Motor Ed and Electronique? Aviarius and Gill were almost a joke but..."

She caught 'the look' from everyone in their little traveling group on that.

"In terms of how well they worked together as a team," Kim hastily clarified. "Almost like they were just meant as a distraction. But Ed and Electronique's skills are perfectly complimentary. Either one is dangerous alone, but put together as a team..."

"Exactly," Betty agreed with a haunted eye. "God help us if they turn out to be compatible."

#######

"WHoooaaa!" Ed gasped in pleasure as the incredibly hot and completely naked blue skinned woman straddled his throbbing gearshift and slowly slid herself down the entire length. The fact that he was having sex for the third time in his entire life was rad enough, but Electronique's strange wire-like pubic hair was actually emitting SPARKS, each of which sent a rippling twing of electricity coursing through out his body! That wasn't just radical, it was badical!

'_Thank you Mister Whoever you are,'_ He thought, ogling the bouncing blue breasts bobbing beautifully only inches from his sweating face! It couldn't get any better than this! And then the convulsions hit him and it DID! Bucking like a bronco, his massive frame thrust with a mind of its own as his muscles reflexively clinched and unclinched with insane speed, something that Electronique had apparently anticipated, because she had already dug her clawlike fingers in for security as she rode him like a bikini babe at the baddest biker rodeo ever!

"Yes! YES!" She laughed, pleased that the mammoth man's heart hadn't given out. This one would do indeed! The damned Attitude Polarity Reversal she herself had designed had turned out to be a worse prison than any structure of brick or stone could have ever been. Trapped inside that goodie-goodie version of herself, she hadn't just been unable to do anything evil, she'd been unable to do anything those evil nuns at the Academy had told her not to do... which had meant that not only had she been incapable of building a means of escape, she hadn't even been able to bring herself to masturbate! Now, all that time in solitary confinement was unleashing itself in a torrid fury of sexual passion! Forget about foreplay, the first thing she'd done as soon as they'd reached this cave that... Ted? Was that the name he had used? That he had said was safe, was make good on her promise to tear off his pants and satiate herself.

Well, the second thing, actually. The first had been to smash the attitudinator he'd somehow been able to acquire and use to release her from her mental confinement. Apparently Hench had lied about the scarcity of those devices... but then, when didn't Hench lie when it served to drive up his already ridiculous prices? But now there was one less. It had served its purpose of negating the original effect and she couldn't risk having the polarity re-reversed.

Not that that mattered now. Right now she had to release the energy that had been building inside her for over a year! Equipped with an extra organ similar to an electric eel's, Electronique normally generated random pulses of static to burn off the excess power she generated just through the acts of walking and breathing. But since she'd been told that using her powers was 'bad,' it had been like having the contacts of a 9-Volt battery permanently attached to a very moist spot in her body, constantly burning for months. That energy had to be released and had to be released NOW!

This business of killing Possible, that would be job two... or maybe job three if she could coax Ted into a second round quickly enough. A little applied current to the prostate, she thought, could do wonders. In fact...

"WHOA!" Ed gasped as he felt a blue finger slide up his exhaust pipe! And then all he could do was proceed to make a very creditable imitation of his favorite "Dixieland" carhorn as he found an entirely new and unexpected source of energy entering his body from an unanticipated direction! He'd always loved hot rods but now he WAS a hot rod and he could feel the current arcing off said member like a Tesla Coil on overload!

"Da DA DA DA da da DA DA DA DA DA DAAAaaarrrr!" he roared as Electronique drove him with all the skill of a NASCAR driver in the final lap at Indy! "!

######

Outside the cave, a lone coyote ran off in terror. It had no idea what monster had moved into the huge cavern it had been using as a den, but it was wise enough to know it wanted absolutely nothing to do with anything that could make a sound that horrible!


	36. Chapter 36

_Author's Note: And back again! As you can see, things are really starting to roll but all opposing teams are not yet on the field! The Perfect Storm is brewing and by the time this thing is done... well, you'll see. I look at my notes and just hope I'll be able to keep all of it straight, 'cause it's gonna be nuts. Thanks once more for all the great reviews and I look forward to your comments, even if it's just a "great job." Will post again soonish, now back to the grindstone! __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Doctor Director, Doctor Anne Possible, Monique, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Jack Hench, Gemini, Summer Gale, Aviarius, Gill, Motor Ed and Electronique and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein, Cyn, Raymond the Evil Accoutant and Peter Laska are original to this document and free for re-use with a nod. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 36

#####

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MIND PRINCESS?"

"No," Kim bit back the urge to snap back. "I'm the one being cool and logical here!"

And she was. She knew she was. Dr. Director had just dropped the bomb about Motor Ed and Electronique and she was ONLY one who wasn't letting it frazzle her. That's why they were still standing here in the hallway... well, she was still sitting/lying... arguing ten minutes later. Because everyone else was acting like an IDIOT!

"Cool and...?" Shego sputtered. "If you think I'm letting your sweet fucking ass go out there and..."

"It's MY fucking ass and I'll thank you to watch your language! My mother's standing right there!" Kim gesticulated wildly in the direction of her gape-mouthed parent and realized that maybe, just maybe, she WAS starting to lose her own grip now and forced herself to pull back from the instinctive reflex need to match Shego beat for beat, decibel for decibel... a feat she ultimately accomplished by the simple but unexpected tact of throwing herself off the gurney Shego had been pushing her on and storming down the hall under her own power. Yeah, she was only wearing a hospital gown, but after posing naked how many times now it was really ceasing to be an issue. Hell, everyone here had already SEEN the aforementioned hind end!

"Why do I even bother?" Anne Possible sighed. "Kimmie, get back on the gurney! You're still under the effects of the anesthesia!"

"I'm FINE mom," Kim retorted. "And in case you hadn't figured it out, that stuff barely even numbs me these days."

"WHAT?" Anne's eyes bulged in horror. She'd been putting in STITCHES and setting RIBS! "You mean you...?"

"I chewed a couple of ibuprofen right before you started, it's okay," Kim waved it off, before turning her eyes back to a certain green-eyed she-demon. "And as for you, your concern is appreciated, but if what Gale said is true, hiding down in a lair's not the answer. THINK about it! I can break into most of them in less than fifteen minutes and so can you; for this kind of money you think they won't eventually find someone good enough to get into ours? And even if we could make it impregnable, you know damn well that they can find some way to MAKE me come out. Grab mom, dad, my brothers, Monique...? You think we can ALL hide down there forever?"

Shego bit her lip as that hit home. Good, Kim thought, the brain in that beautiful green skull was finally starting to function again.

"No, sorry," Kim swore. "That's not going to happen. We won't LET it happen. Our best chance is to take out as many of these bastards as we can... sorry about the language Mom... now, and burn our way up the chain until we find who's responsible!"

"Okay, now THAT I agree with!" Shego growled.

"Then process this," Kim continued, stalking back towards the group "We don't know who they are or what they're doing. The one thing we DO know is what they want. If I'm out and on the move they have to play our game, keep up with us, be worried about what we're going to do to them. Otherwise THEY'RE in control and I'll take offense over defense any day of the week."

"I just don't like the idea of using you as bait," Shego countered. "I'm seeing an ugly trend here: the last couple of times Team Go fought Aviarius, he was a pushover... the time with the power switching thingy excepted. But I had a chance to check out that gear he was wearing after they stripped it off him and it was all A Plus class stuff. The flying belt was actually retro-engineered Lowardian and the armor would have stopped my plasma. Ron said the same thing about Gill... his mutations have gone way off the scale."

"Exactly," Betty chimed in. "And whoever's bringing them in knew that. And if they were second-class threats before..."

"Electronique and Motor Ed, with whatever upgrades they've picked up, are going to be absolutely lethal," Shego added.

"Which is why we need to keep you under wraps here until..." Betty began to finish but...

"NO!" Shouted Kim and Shego at once.

Kim turned and stared at Shego in surprise.

"Hey, when you're right, you're right," Shego admitted.

"And people wonder why I love you," Kim grinned, having suddenly found her arms wrapped around Shego.

"I thought it was because of the way I..." A wicked pair of green lips smirked.

"NOT with my MOM present!" Came the giggled response.

"Really? 'Cause that gurney looks like it could hold two."

"Fine," Kim oozed into every curve of Shego's body. "When this is over we'll get one and…"

"Kimmie!" Anne finally screamed, seeing where this was going all too clearly. "Your Mother! Standing right here!"

"Yeah, and my virgin ears don't need to hear it either!" A bug-eyed Monique added...

Only to be met by an incredulous look from Kim that very clearly carried a heaping helping of _"and then what was all that you were carrying on about you and Tony at the Middleton Nights Inn after the homecoming dance?" _ as a not so subtle subtext.

"Okay, maybe not virgin," Monique admitted. "But compared to you two? Sheesh! And could you at least cover your ass?"

Which Kim chose to accomplish with a simple about face so her rear was grinding into Shego, whose arms immediately wrapped protectively about her Princess.

"And on that subject," Betty finally managed to find an opening for a new attack, "Metaphorical if not literal, can we please get back to the real focus here?"

"No, Betty, Kim's right." Shego intercepted the argument.

"We have to cut off the head or it'll just keep sending out new tentacles," Kim caught the toss and followed with the setup, "And in the meantime we've got to hit back hard."

"Hard enough that every new team of assassins they want to send in will think twice about going after Kimmie," Shego slammed it through the hoop, the rapid verbal hand offs now flying back and forth so seamlessly between them that it was as if they were one person speaking in two voices and Betty couldn't even find an opening as they went for another shot.

"Right," Kim was saying. "That's why we're fortunate the contract specifies that they have to bring in my body. It puts a limit on the types and calibers of weapons they can use."

"No, they only have to bring in your head Kim," Betty finally found a rebuttal to block with. "We got that much out of Gill. He didn't know why, but Aviarius said they needed it intact for payment."

Anne and Monique, who had gasped at the word 'body,' now gaped at Betty in sudden horror.

"Then at least they're unlikely to go for a head shot, right?" Kim fired back, missing her mother's expression as she focused on Dr. Director's opposition.

"Maybe..." Anne interrupted weakly. "Maybe I'll take that gurney."

"Way T.M.I.," Monique agreed nauseously. "Oh God, way T.M.I."

"Oh geez, I'm sorry Mom!" Kim rushed to her mother and she and Shego helped the woman stagger up on the rolling bed, where she lay on her side, looking sorely tempted to curl into a fetal ball. "I'm really..."

"'s'kay Kim," Dr. Anne Possible wheezed out. "Wanted to stay. Thought I could..." A shudder ran down the length of her body. "Maybe... not such a good idea."

"Yes," Doctor Director spoke softly, watching Kim attempt to comfort her mom and totally mortified at what she had just said in front of the poor woman. _'Her daughter!'_ Her brain kept repeating to herself like a broken record. _'That was her daughter you were talking about you stupid callous one eyed bitch!' _ "Maybe we should wheel your mother to the infirmary and continue this in my office."

"Yeah…" Kim agreed slowly. "I think it's time you and I had a long talk anyway."

######

The wind was whipping through the desolate, ice-filled maze of trees with a wailing, mournful howl not unlike the sound of banshees being tortured by cats in heat sharpening their nails on a million chalkboards as the small yellow microbus broke from the dense ancient thicket into the open area beyond. With a stuttering, stammering, feeble last gasp of wheezing bio-diesel exhaust from its frozen pipes, the ancient vehicle came to a slow rolling, grinding stop and… after pausing to make sure that the brakes were really set THIS time… Junior, Faux-Kim and the small handful of remaining support staff that hadn't had the intelligence to abscond with their last paychecks stepped out into the snow and rock scattered clearing.

Before them stood an ancient relic; a monument to man's inability to surrender to impossible odds, a towering edifice of rock and hand quarried stone with the odd ancient timber from primordial forests contributing to the mammoth gate that looked like a refugee from the sequel to King Kong. It was a castle. But not just any castle. It was a titanic monstrosity half built by blood-soaked hands using blood stained rock cemented in place with a mortar of blood as the last few drops of blood left in their owners after supplying half the construction materials splattered wastefully on the ground courtesy of the prison master's whip, the other half dug out of the rock of the mountain itself as the inmates trapped in its dank and cavernous interior sought desperately to further remove themselves from the bitter, biting cold that even in mid-summer rarely rose above the temperature of glacial slush. It was a vision of hell, a nightmare, an abomination that could not and should not be.

And yet it was.

Faux-Kim, who had no idea that she was really Bonnie Rockwaller (although she had several magazines hidden in her backpack that might steer her in the right direction, if she ever got the chance to read them,) said it best:

"What a disgusting pile of SHIT!"

"Tough," Junior snapped, his breath freezing into ice crystals at it hit the furry pink collar of his fuchsia and canary yellow parka. "This is home for the next few days, so get used to it!"

As he turned and stoically strode through the foot deep snow towards the massive front entrance of the repulsive and decaying structure bought as an investment by his at times extremely optimistic and sometimes out and out delusional father, the younger Senior missed the low groan that emitted from the assembled band of misfits, ne'er-do-wells and third-class thugs that he referred to collectively as his 'posse.'

They had arrived at Castle Senior.

And here, Junior swore, and on nearby the ancient flows of ice that the original inhabitants had named Domeniul Sângeroase de Gheaţă şi Depresie (Stai Departe, ai Naibii de Proşti)* on maps drawn in (what else?) blood, the REAL Kim Possible would meet her doom.

And judging by the single set of footsteps he was following towards the door, his partner in crime had already arrived.

#####

"Why didn't you tell me this place had no heat!" Camille Léon screamed as Junior tentatively poked his head inside. "I've been freezing my ass off ever since the helicopter dropped me off!"

"And where are the swimming pools? The hot tubs? For that matter, where are the Goddamn STAFF? What kind of hotel is this?"

Indeed. Although there WAS quite a bit of furniture, the hotel project Triple SSS had initiated to convert this giant building into a luxury resort had hit a major snag. He'd anticipated the possibility of historian protesting the desecration of an archaeological treasure, but had quickly discovered that no one felt that Castelul de Sânge, Piatră şi Mai Mult Sânge – literally the Castle of Blood, Stone and More Blood – was worth preserving. Rather, it had been the nearby glaciers and global warming on those ancient fields of ice that had put the kibosh on the whole plan. However, as those same factors keyed into Junior's own nefarious schemes, HE thought it was all a wonderfully fortuitous coincidence. Now he just had to convince Miss Léon.

"Ah, um… yes," Junior fumbled. "About that. The heat is just off... but the weblink I sent you MAY have been to an artist's conception of what my father intends to do with this place."

"Wait! You LIED to me? There's NO FREE SPA WEEK?"

"Not lied… got you here under deceptive circumstances perhaps," Junior twitched. "Actually I have an offer of partnership for you, but I could not trust the… internets."

"Work? Work! I dropped two gigs as Elvis to be here!" Camille snarled. Fake Elvis sightings were her bread and butter, followed by standing in for intoxicated teen actors. "What the hell could you have that could be so valuable?"

"Well… it involves Kim Possible."

One could have possibly rammed a red-hot poker up Camille's anus and got less of a reaction.

'_Possible?'_ Camille thought with disbelief. Unlike Junior, who'd been on the go since before the story broke and had been avoiding the media to keep faux-Kim unaware, Camille had been watching television up to a few hours ago, so she knew what was going on in the outside world. To her, the leap in logic was instantaneous: of course he meant the gig every criminal on the planet was looking for a way to get in on! But JUNIOR? JUNIOR was one of the assassins competing for the half billion dollar prize?

Then again, what the fuck did she care if he was asking HER to come on board as his partner? IF that was really what he was doing. She had to be sure…

"Kim Possible?" She found herself unexpectedly whispering in disbelief. "KILLING Kim Possible?"

"Um…" Junior could not believe what she was saying. How did she KNOW? How COULD she know?

"Yes," He finally admitted. "Killing Kim Possible."

"Say no more," Camille nodded in a manner she hoped look understanding, though in truth her own insides were doing backflips and she'd almost peed her designer panties. "I've already heard about the contract. And what would the terms of my… participation… be? Fifty/fifty?"

Junior's face, which had already fallen considerably, went subterranean as soon as Camille said she knew the details already. Obviously he'd moved not a second too soon. One of his ex-employees must have spoken out of turn! Now Junior had to strike immediately! Before Possible learned about his plans to film her demise and catapult himself to celluloid immortality.

And that meant he had to have Léon now! It was the only way to get the assets he needed before it was too late! Completely clueless… well, that came with the neighborhood… let's say completely oblivious to what Camille actually thought he was negotiating, Junior rummaged though his cluttered closet of a mind and tried to remember how many thousand dollars he'd been promised as an advance on delivery of the film. Still, $5,050.00 sounded very reasonable to him. Obviously Léon was in much harder financial straits than he'd thought and he'd overpaid for that hair color secret.

"Done!" He decided, spitting on his hand and holding it out. It was a quaint American custom and he'd decided he needed to know those for when he went to Hollywood. At least he assumed that was where American snuff movies were shot. Or was it maybe those studios in Orlando?

Stunned at the easy acceptance of her way too hopeful first offer, Camille immediately grasped Junior's saliva covered appendage and shook it until her teeth rattled and her boobs bounced free of her brassiere. Hell, for half of half a billion dollars, she'd have licked off the spit, blown Junior in front of her entire Academy graduating class and then let him take her anally while she was morphed into Brad Pitt… that last item being a $20,000.00 gig on her price card, as it happened… just as a seal the deal free bonus.

"Excellent," Junior smiled. "My posse is waiting outside, but before we let them in, there are some things you need to know. The girl with the red hair…"

######

"Of course, I could just put you under house arrest," Betty threatened casually, now that they'd moved to her office and Kim had fortunately found a pair of pants. She was still wearing the surgical gown as a top though, and it looked surprisingly… perky. Probably because she wasn't wearing a bra underneath and she had the perkiest breasts Dr. Director had ever semi-seen.

"Actually, no you can't," Kim countered without concern, typing away on her retrieved Kimmunicator. "If you'll check the text of the agreement between GR and GJ, you'll see that there's as specific clause covering that. As sister organizations under a shared charter, for an agent of GJ to arrest or interfere with the actions of a GR operative, the GJ agent in question must first get clearance from someone of a higher level of authority of GR. As Shego and I are technically your equals under said terms, I'm afraid you'll have to obtain a joint resolution from the security council first."

"And good luck on that," Shego added from her position on the couch, where she was both acting as Kim's backrest and reading over her shoulder.

"I was hoping you'd forgotten that clause," Betty sighed. "If you don't get your fool ass killed, remind me to congratulate whatever sneaky weasel lawyer wrote that bit of legalese for you."

"That would be me," Shego admitted, "Damn rotten me."

"Damn lovely you," Kim whispered, still typing but taking a second to rub her head back indulgently into Shego's bosom.

"Mmm…" The green woman murmured. "I'd take you right here and now but your mom already took the gurney."

"This sofa's rather…"

"LADIES!" Dr. Director interrupted before her sofa was used for an unintended purpose. "We're supposed to be talking about how to handle this situation."

"Actually, you know, the idea that you're holding me in protective custody might be a good initial story to plant, though," Kim mused, "And it would definitely help if you'd spread the word that you'd be guarding my family here. If the whole world thinks we're here, it'll be so much more effective when we show up someplace else."

"And how will you manage to do that?" Betty queried.

"Oh, with a little trick I just worked out with Wade," Kim grinned. "Allow me to demonstrate."

Betty was impressed. More than impressed. She wanted those things for every one her agents NOW!

"Oh, that's perfection!" she laughed. "Absolutely brilliant!"

"I'd hoped you'd think so," Kim grinned. "Now tell me what you think about this."

Kim aimed her Kimmunicator at Betty's supposedly impregnable, unhackable computer and data started scrolling across the screen.

"Operation Turkey Shoot?" Betty queried with a wry smirk.

"A little easier to say than Operation Fish In a Barrel," Kim shrugged. "So… any critiques besides the choice of title? I'll call it Heidi if that's the only problem."

"No," Betty smiled, still reading. This was good… REALLY good. "Not so far. But you're going to need a damn big distraction to keep the focus elsewhere."

"Oh, that we have," Shego smirked… and the green woman's evil smile didn't bear an uncanny resemblance to a crocodile's just because of her lip color. "How fortunate that we have the video Cyn shot."

"Which isn't completely ours," Kim pointed out. "We'll need have to talk with Peter over how we want to handle it, but Anna's already on point, so we can probably get something going ASAP."

"Then let's do it," Betty agreed. "If we play this right, we can do some serious housecleaning."

#####

Jack Hench leaned forward and addressed the video screen, taking care not to let his bandaged hand wander into the camera's field of view. At LAST! Some GOOD news!

"And that's a hundred henchmen that you will be needing immediately, is that correct Mr. Senior?"

"Yes," The elegant villain replied, then nodded to the less impressive person sitting next to him. "Of course, this project will be headed by my fine son, so you may put it on his plutonium card. Junior, give your number to Mr. Hench's nice accountant, if you would please?"

Junior rattled it off quickly and Hench's accountant Raymond, the only other individual ever allowed in the room when negotiating major Hench contracts entered the numbers, pronouncing them good a second later. Not that that was a surprise. Everyone knew Senior money was always good.

"Excellent," Jack nodded. "Very well, Mister Senior. Your henchmen will be on their way immediately. You should expect them late tomorrow at…"

"Senior Castle," Senor Senior Sr. smiled, "Also known as La Castelul de Sânge, Piatră şi Mai Mult Sânge."

"Ah, Senior Castle should be good enough. Thank you sir!" Jack made a respectful half-bow as the video screen went black. "Yes, thank you indeed."

And then, suddenly, unexpectedly, the video screen came back up again with the excited face of the on-duty Hench-bookie.

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry sir, but we just got another request for a major order!"

Jack and Raymond exchanged looks of glee.

"Well, that's nothing to be sorry about then, is it?" Hench exhulted. "Put them through."

Jack was not particularly surprised to see who it was. The man frequently hired in lots of 30 to 40. Still, his money was usually good, even if it took some 'coercing' sometimes to fill his slots..

"Yes Sheldon," he put on his fake grin, "How may I help you?"

"I would like to hire 100 henchmen," Sheldon Director, aka Gemini smiled in return. "Would you like my Plutonium Card number?"

######

Meanwhile, back at Castelul de Sân... back at Castle Senior, a wary Senor Senior Sr. turned to look at his son with an oddly cautious and warning expression.

"And you're sure you have enough to pay for all that?"

"It's really my father's account," Junior shrugged. "He has the money to burn, as they say."

"I hope so," 'Senor Senior Sr.'s worried face rippled and his voice went up several octaves until it returned to being Camille Léon's own once more. "I certainly hope so. Jack Hench is not someone I want to have mad at me."

"But that is the beauty of it," Junior laughed. "The person he will be mad at is my father."

'_And I'd rather not have HIM mad at me either,'_ Camille thought. _'But for a quarter of a billion dollars, I'll gladly take the heat for this AND kill Kim Possible myself.'_

######

"Junior? Junioooor?"

Senor Senior Sr.'s voice carried through the abandoned mini-lair.

"I swear! Where has that boy gone?"

Stepping into the stripped out space that had been Junior's 'war room' just over twenty hours previously, the eccentric and most of the times evil billionaire flicked on the lights.

He was happy about that. He'd always taught Junior to turn off the lights when he left. They were evil, not wasteful.

Unfortunately, his son had left the place in a situation just short of complete disaster. The few items of furniture left we all at odds, some turned over on their sides, and huge boxes of garbage that hadn't been taken out loitered the floor.

'_Oh, and what's this?'_ he thought, picking up a fuchsia and canary yellow sports bag. Junior's name had been written on the side using some kind of gold and jewel-attaching technique… 'Bedazzling' Senor Senior Sr. believed it was called… as well as the word's 'VERY IMPORTANT – FOR JUNIOR'S EYES ONLY.'

So, like any good parent, Senor Senior Sr. opened the bag and looked inside... which required removing the green Postee Note from the top, the one with the message reading "Very Important! Do not Forget! SS Junior" scrawled out it in metallic purple ink.

Hmmm. Now what did Junior consider so vitally important? A change of underwear. Important, yes, but probably not what was meant. Socks. No. Cologne. No. A movie script? Was Junior still playing with that silly idea? And what was this? No! It couldn't be! A VIBRATOR?

No… wait! It was an even more unexpected thing to find! He'd only read of them, but the HENCHCO logo on the side was enough to tell Senor Senior Sr. what it was… but why would Junior have it?

Why would anyone need an Attitudinator, and why would they have left something so valuable behind?

"Junior," Senor Senior Sr. found himself muttering, his accent manifesting itself just a bit more than usual. "You're going to have some serious exsplaining to do this time!"

#####

* Romanian. It literally means "Bloody Field of Ice and Depression (Stay the Fuck Away, You Damn Fools)"


	37. Chapter 37

_Author's Note: Here's another one. Another in the cue right behind, should be up tomorrow or early sat. Good news/bad News time. First: 49.000 hits! Woot! I know, you don't care, but it's kinda cool it means 50,000 is just a day away. Next: In conversation with some others over on the KP Writers forum, it was pointed out that the end of November was looming nigh and I HAD said this was going to be done by the end of this month. Well…. looking at where I am and what still has to come, the odds of this being finished before the end of November are looking rather poor, especially since I'm currently full of cough medicine that's making me fall asleep at random mo…. Zzzzz. Huh? Where was I? Oh yes. Part of the reason for the delay is that I'd been anticipating that everything would run its course in a little over 40 chapters. Now it's looking like it will end up being closer to 50. Am I out of my mind? Yes, apparently. My blocking for the final battle royal alone is a MINIMUM of four chapters and will most likely stretch to six, so… mid-December is the new finish time. Sorry for the push-back, I just really want to get EVERYTHING in there, and I can't see rushing it at this point. Also, in the last batch of reviews Kirbilius Clausius had some interesting comments on the use of the word realism in regards to this fic... And let me say that I really appreciate comments like these, as it helps me see where I haven't made things clear enough within the course of the narrative. Obviously 'realistic' is a very relative word, and I place ATCOTS in the same general 'realistic' range as the later Sean Connery and middle Roger Moore James Bond flicks... actually OUR MAN FLINT is just about dead on, if you've seen that iconic film. Otherwise, there's just too much in the KP cannon that simply doesn't fly in reality... continents being moved, rays that invoke mind control, body switching, instant clones, giant cockroaches, machines that turn men into babies, etc. To make a truly "realistic" Kim Possible would mean pretending none of that happened or ever existed. Rather than take such a revisionist approach, however, I tried to find angles to integrate it carefully... hence my specific tackling of the "disappearing because you're embarrassed flower potion" plot thread, as I felt I was easily the single least realistic episode in the entire series. That set the bar on how "real" we were really going to get. That said, the one thing I really did want to make more realistic was the nature of the relationships and especially the entire KiGo thing. I'm a huge fan of both Kim and Shego as individual characters and the strange ambiguity of the relationship between them was one of the things I loved most about the original show. Trying to find reasons and events to fit between the actions we saw was something I found quite fascinating, and since we knew much more about Kim, it seemed the key would be locked in Shego's past. I hope I've done that in a way that stays true to cannon and at the same time is logical and believable. As for the whole half-billion dollar contract: In the real world, of course, there are numerous groups and organizations that would be willing to take Kim out in a heartbeat. And they would no doubt use weapons that would be damn hard to stop and require all out military action by Global Justice and who knows who else to stop them. But, by the very nature of that kind of plot, Kim would ultimately play a very small part in that story and be more of an observer. This is not that story but obviously someone out there can feel free to write it… in fact, I think Tom Clancy would be a great choice. Anyone got his e-mail? In the meantime, I've allowed Brotherson to present his own re-summary on the issue below, but if you've been following closely, there's no way those groups can get involved with way Brotherson framed the game. Yet. Thanks for reading all this and continuing to read/review this ongoing opus that seems to have taken on Homerian proportions. Back soon with the next installment, and for those who can't get enough of it: __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Doctor Director, Doctor Anne Possible, Big Daddy Brotherson, Jack Hench, Adrena Lynn, Camille Leon, Team Impossible, Gemini, Summer Gale, the Mathter, Aviarius, Gill, Motor Ed and Electronique and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein, Cyn, Sam, Ralph and Peter Laska are original to this document and free for re-use with a nod. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 37

#####

Brotherson stared at his monitors with sleep-deprived eyes and tried to figure out what was going on. The last team phone had STILL not been delivered! What was going on there? Obviously Adrena Lynne had ditched her chosen partner, Camille Leon, in favor of Team Impossible, but it was hard for Brotherson to find fault there... in fact, he had to admit that both Lynne and the new group she had created had moved way up in his estimation. TI weren't just competent, they had plenty of experience in the kind of clandestine wetwork that could bring this all to a quick and final conclusion, and prison had been extremely education for Lynne… if somewhat disfiguring. Of course, he'd have to change that team's name... his original pet name of Team Tits & Ass no longer really matched the craggy visages of Dash Demond, Crash Cranstin, and Burn Burmin. Hmm… maybe Team Hardbodies or Team Steroid.

As for the rest of the first group of teams…

Team Impressive Figures… or Team Sacrificial Goat, as he really should have called it... aka Summer Gale and the Mathter... was in the middle of a situation that would be resolving itself VERY shortly.

Then there was Team Whee Wee! Gemini seemed to be making plans with his usual manic skill, but hadn't attempted to contact his partner yet. That was no big surprise and Brotherson had anticipated that would happen. He had already goosed the system there, and it would come as a very rude shock for the psychotic director of WEE to find himself under someone else's thumb for a change. Brotherson had always felt that, with a little proper discipline and control, WEE could have done much better for themselves and he thought his solution to the problem was quite… inspired and inventive.

Meanwhile Team Heavy Metal seemed to have gone into some kind of planning or building mode. That made sense given their technical bent, and how else to explain that fact that, after breaking Electronique out of the GJ holding facility in a rather spectacular raid, Motor Ed had simply been parked in the middle of the desert ever since? Or, at least, that's where the silver phone he'd sent the man was. With more time Brotherson could have found a way to track the teams more effectively, but if they left the phones behind while they carried out a mission… something that was actually good from Brotherson's point of view as it was one less thing to trace back to him… he could only have a vague guess as to where they were really were.

Which was currently the case with Team Fish Nor Fowl, the team that had been moving so quickly at first. Their phone had been sitting on the outside of Middleton for a full day and his guess was that it meant that they were already in deep, deep trouble. Given that the possession of the silver phone was a prerequisite for actually getting PAID, Aviarius had probably hidden his in some secure location… but the fact that the internal proximity sensors hadn't been triggered, and that the GPS had shown absolutely no motion since yesterday, was almost certainly a strong indication that something had happened to the team itself. This seemed to be confirmed by the intel he was getting that two prisoners matching the general descriptions of Gill and Aviarius had been seen being taken in into the main Global Justice facility by someone else matching the description of Shego. Either the two had brilliantly managed to come up with a clever ruse to infiltrate their way into the very heart of Global Justice's most secure location... unlikely given the two individuals involved… or they had been captured.

Frankly, that made Brotherson glad. The game still had too many potentially interesting wrinkles left to unfold for the whole thing to have ended so quickly. On the other hand, he really needed to know what had happened, for while he didn't want Possible to die right away, it wouldn't do for every team he sent in to meet the same fate. The woman had become almost inhumanly competent over the last year, and while he wanted to string his fun out as long as he could, there was a limited supply of supervillains to work with. If Possible had new tricks up her sleeve, he would have to find a way to give his groups a little heads up. He really didn't want to let the game escalate to the next inevitable phase, which was the one that Hench had REALLY intended Brotherson to enact: an all out, open bounty to anyone who could bring in Possible dead, no questions asked. The carnage that that would cause would be…

Brotherson sighed as he pushed the thought out of his mind. With his little hand-picked teams he COULD control the flow of the bloodshed and destruction, which he was focusing in a specific direction to accomplish a completely different set of goals. If his teams failed, however, at some point he'd have to open the contest to less... manageable players. That would be an issue, because while supervillains could be counted on to act in certain predictable ways, opening the competition to larger groups… especially those with more extreme agendas like the radical hate groups and the nationalized forces of less civilized nations like those Kālpanikan buffoons… would leave him with almost no way to control the resulting chaos, and a LOT of people, especially civilians, would die in the crossfire. Hence the entire dance of needing prior authorization via a silver phone to enter the melee… or, more precisely, to get paid.

Not that it was any sense of social responsibility that kept Brotherson from allowing more radical groups to participate, it was the simple fact that ultimately they had little use for he and his own services to begin with. And the more collateral damage, the more people who would ultimately be coming after the people responsible for setting the whole thing in motion. If he was going to allow Possible to be killed and have to endure the worldwide shitstorm that would ensue... she was simply too well loved to think that anything else might occur... then he would do it in a way that would leave Big Daddy Brotherson in a much more powerful position once the dust had cleared. Of course, to take that position, he would have to remove some of the people who were sitting where HE wanted to be, but he'd structured the game in such a way as to, if everything went correctly, to do that as well.

The amusing thing was how those same people had given him the weapons to do that with, yet still couldn't see what they had done. Brotherson had given Hench, for example, several possible ways out of the dilemma, if the man had simply had the sense to take them, but Big Daddy had long ago realized that Hench really didn't understand what he had at all. The man was entire too confident and full of hubris to see his own Achilles' Heels, or to realize that the tower he sat in was built on a foundation of sand. And when enough grains were removed...

######

"Hey Ralph!" Henchman #68287, Samuel Jackson (no relation,) greeted his arch rival across the crowded lunch room. Wiggling his way through the crowds of hungry henchmen, he somehow managed to make it to the table Ralph was sitting at without spilling a drop of the classified top secret meat on his overflowing lunch tray. A 'big' man in the beanpole sense of the word, Sam liked his meals heavy, filled with starch and soaked with gravy, yet it never seemed to touch his 6'4" scarecrow-like frame.

"Hey Sam," Henchman #85109, Ralph E. Shepherd, replied with a slight smile. His smile was the only thing that was slight, however. Pushing the scales at 320 and just under six feet tall, he was habitually fighting the absolute weight limit for Henchmen his height, hence the modest green salad and cantaloupe slice decorating his plate. He didn't really feel like talking, but he knew what his friend was after. Although neither matched the classic profile of a computer geek, they were two of the highest posting members on the Henchman's Life section of the Henchco website… in fact, last year Ralph had actually had THE single highest post count on the entire site and as a reward for his participation now owned one of the incredibly rare Hector Henchco T-shirts. (Rare as in actually purchased, the back stock room was so full of them that they were often used for mopping up spills.) Of course, while both men publically professed to enjoy the sense of camaraderie the site was supposed to encourage, their real; interest was much more personal.

They liked to tell jokes.

More than that, they liked to WRITE jokes. In the Henchman's Life Kim Possible joke section, they were two of the most acknowledged masters of the form, yet despite their rivalry on the verbal battleground, they'd discovered that the two of the actually drew creative energy from the competition… hence the fact that they always managed to find a way to eat lunch on the third shift together… when they weren't actually henching, that is.

"So, got any new ones?" Ralph finally asked, knowing the wait was killing his friend.

Sam, who had been practically bouncing, nodded with enthusiasm. "Yep. Why is Kim Possible's grappling hook disguised as a hair dryer?"

"I don't know Sam… Why IS Kim Possible's grappling hook disguised as a hair dryer?"

"Because if they disguised it as a vibrator, she'd never have left her fucking house."

"Not bad," Ralph admitted. "Not bad at all." One of the reasons he and Sam got along so well is that neither went for the really nasty jokes, the ones involving rape, torture or other forms of bodily harm. That probably had something to do with the fact that they were both fathers themselves. However, ever since the calendar, it had been agreed that Kim Possible's vagina was now a wide open target… pun intended… and they'd practically invented the now insanely popular "LRP" format together.

"So what have you got in the cooker?" Sam asked cheerfully.

"Not sure," Ralph sighed. "I'm still trying to come up with a new 'Little Red Pussy' joke, but it's hard to find a trick that hasn't been done there yet."

"Which is what Kim Possible's little red pussy says about all the guys she knows," Sam zinged with a grin.

"Son of a bitch," Raph blinked "Did you just make that up?"

"Right on the spot. Which is where Kim Possible's little red pussy likes to be rubbed."

"Damn," Ralph sighed. "You've been on fire lately."

"Nah," Sam denied, shoveling three Ralph-meals worth of mashed potatoes into his mouth. "Just ain't had much else to do. You were working that Dementor gig, right?"

"Yeah, and had Possible crack my damn tibia again as a result, thank you," Ralph groaned. "Good thing Hench has such great medical coverage."

"Coverage my ass. He pays the docs in cash. You think any insurance company would cover this…"

Sam's usual 'we need real insurance monolog' was about to roll into high gear when there was a shriek of feedback from the overhead speakers. All conversation in the room immediately ceased and every eye in the room rotated as one to focus on the podium at the far end of the room, where Thomas Gunn, Henchman # 46503, the acting shift leader while Jerry Friedle, Senior Hench #8305, was recovering in the hospital from what Hench Operatives referred to simply as PMFGR (Possible-induced Multiple Fractures of the Genital Region, aka kicked in the balls so hard it fractured his pelvis,) was now standing.

"Okay people! I've got the kind of announcement we like: WORK!"

A modest cheer went up. Work was good in that those on it went to full-time pay, versus the half pay they received while on reserve. Work was bad in that Henchmen got hurt. A lot.

"We got two orders to fill," Tommy was saying. "First one's a biggie; the next hundred names I call I will come stand behind me. You're all going to Senior, Junior."

There was a collective "Ah!" then a "Ohhh…"as the 'Junior' was tacked on the end. Everyone knew that Senior Sr. not only ran one of the tightest ships in the villain business, but he also gave his henches access to his hotel's recreational facilities and, in really slow periods, even allowed them to pick up extra cash as caddies, pool boys or... that most dreamed of positions, driving those cool little golf carts. Junior, though, was a less predictable customer. He was no slave driver, but his organizational skills were crap, so everything always ended up being done at the last minute, which was hell on a henchman's nerves and back. On the other hand, with a hire this big, he was clearly up to something big… and with all the buzz going around about the Possible Contract, something big could mean the ticket to the chance to punching Possible's ticket out once and for all.

Ralph wondered what they would think if they knew that, personally, he hoped the little red fireball would keep on ticking... and not just because she was an endless font of jokes. He'd never say it out loud, and sure as hell not here, but he'd always rather admired the little cuss. He still remembered going against her once when she was just starting out, all gawky limbs and flat-chested, awkward, pre-teen body... and she'd still kicked his ass. Now, when he snuck a look at the calendar he kept in his desk (telling the other guys he used as inspiration for jokes,) he had to admit she'd grown into an impressive young woman. That resonated heavily with Ralph, who had a daughter of his own, currently being raised by his ex-wife, and he'd been shocked to learn that Jennifer's personal hero... as a result of that same calendar, no less... was one Kim Possible. Jen had always been short and slightly built... petite was what the girls called it, but short and scrawny was what it was… but apparently seeing Possible... who still didn't have much going on in the height or boobage department even now... posing sans makeup and clothes for that calendar had somehow inspired her to go out for cheerleading... and to her shock, making the team as something they called a flyer. She'd even taken to calling herself Jen-credible.

He wondered what his daughter would think if she knew what her father really did for a living? That he wasn't still the assembly line mechanic he'd been before the plant closed and he had to find another job for a guy with strong arms but no college degree. Or that he saw her hero on a regular basis, usually while part of a group trying to beat her to death.

No wonder he couldn't write any funny jokes these days.

"Ralph."

"Huh, what?"

"Tommy just called you man!" Sam whispered urgently. "Get on over there, you lucky bastard."

"Oh, yeah. Right. Thanks. Maybe you'll get picked too."

But Sam didn't. Not for Senior. That's when Tommy dropped the big bomb.

"Okay, here's the surprise. ANOTHER biggie! Next hundred I call form a line against the opposite wall! Going to Gemini and WEE!"

A shocked hush filled the room. GEMINI was hiring again? Bad news. Really bad news. Highest mortality rate of any employer, even during non-combat shifts. And a HUNDRED? Something seriously nasty was going down.

And it got even worse. The third name on the list:

"Jackson, Samuel #68287!"

Even from across the room, Ralph could see the look of horror on Sam's face, and he wondered if he would ever see his friend again. For not the first time in the last couple of years, he wondered how in the hell two otherwise nice guys could have screwed up so bad as to end up here?

#####

As Jack Hench sat in the command center, watching the planes being loaded on closed circuit TV with a cool and calculating eye, someone who didn't know Henchco better would think he was a tough but caring General watching his men go off to war while he was forced to stay behind the lines.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. To be sure, Hench's tight expression reflected concern, but it was for the value of the product being moved out the door. That was how Hench saw the Henchmen, as an expensive and difficult to replace commodity that he had created through careful recruitment and training. Two hundred men at once was a huge chunk of his available stock, and the odds were that a significant portion would not be returning. But the deaths he could deal with, it was the ones that DID return, but in less than optimal condition, that worried him. If the product could be repaired and put back on the market quickly the loss in health costs would be offset by the savings in not having to train replacements. Long term disabilities though... let's just say that his senior field officers had special instructions to help minimize those costs. Instructions the regular henchmen would have killed him for if they had known.

And actually, come to think of it... maybe he couldn't handle even the deaths right now. Business had been so bad that he'd been letting the recruitment and training programs slide. And the more he thought about it, what was really beginning to worry him was the job that he suspected most of those men were heading for. He couldn't be sure who Brotherson had asked to 'play' his insane game, but Gemini was right at the top of that list. Senior Jr.? That was within the realm of possibility, but highly unlikely. He would have expected the elder Senior to have held the younger back from something like this under any situation, and they certainly didn't need a mere half-billion dollars. But the men going out to WEE? He really should be kicking a recruitment program in now for their replacements. Except he didn't have the cash, and wouldn't for months. Every single bit of spare change he could squeeze out of the system was going directly to paying down the huge Plutonium Card charge he'd racked up... so if the men going to Gemini turned out to be a loss, Henchco would be badly hurt in terms of available inventory. In fact... he ran the numbers in his head... once one pulled all the Henchmen who were already out on assignment out of the calculation... he'd only have a few hundred able bodies left available.

Well, there was no help for it right now. Henchco's product department was just going to have to make up the difference... perhaps it was time for a previously 'lost' stockpile of attitudinators to be discovered. There always seemed to be a market for those.

######

"A... a... attitudinator..." Motor Ed gasped desperately, as he attempted to disappear into the crack in the wall of the cave. Stark naked and covered with scratches, he was a mere shadow of the man he'd been twenty four hours before. "Nee... need a..."

"Yooo hoooo! Teddie!" Electronique called and Ed held his breath as the naked blue woman walked past towards the next turn... then... no... NO!

She turned. "Oh there you are! Come back to bed already!" Arcs of electricity fountained from the blue woman's fingers as she came forward to embrace him! She was insatiable! "We can work on the details of our Possible project in a little bit!"

As he felt her hands lock about his withered and beaten scrotum, Ed gave in with a pathetic whimper. He couldn't refuse Electronique... literally... that thing she kept DOING made him ready again and again... and a man's business wasn't designed to DO that! He was red and raw in places he'd never been red and raw before, and felt as though half his insides had been drained from his body... and yet even so, he felt himself rising to the call of duty again.

"That's a good boy," Electronique giggled, leading him back to the sleeping area by the conveniently provided 'handle."

Too exhausted to fight, Ed followed meekly. "Okay... but this is the last time, seriously! We've got to go after Possible!"

Electronique's only response was an insistent tug and a seductive giggle.

Shuddering, Ed gave himself in to his fate.

#####

The twin Henchco target planes took off one after the other, following the standard exit vectors from parallel runways so that they were almost within spitting distance of each other. As they hit cruising altitude, however, the pilots received the encrypted information packs that would tell them their actual course and objectives... the locations being kept secret until this very second to keep possible spies among the Henchmen from leaking word of their destination to unfriendly organizations like Global Justice or rival villains. Now one plane banked off to the north, headed for nearby Upperton while the other headed straight east, across the Atlantic.

Sitting in the thin metal seat that would be his bed for the next eight hours, Ralph opened up his pocket notebook and tried to write a joke.

When the meal of cold sandwiches was passed around four hours later, the page was still blank.

######

"Are you sure you want to do this Kim?" Dr. Director asked carefully. "We can still abort…"

"And what's the backup plan, Betty?" Kim shook her head, looking far more mature in her new Global Rescue uniform. To everyone's amazement, the collaboration between the boys (including Wade) and Monique had actually been an incredibly productive one, and although there were a number of surprises still hidden in the suits, not all of which were prime-time ready yet, it had been decided that this was the moment to showcase them. An ultra-form fitting body suit… you could tell Kim was an 'innie" and Shego an 'outie'… made of an extruded fabric that combined the flexibility of spandex, the bullet-proof qualities of Kevlar, the flame resistance of Asbestos and the 'make your ass and tits look terrific' appearance of painted on wet latex, Kim's version of the suit was the same purple and black color combination as her last mission suit had been, but with the color restricted to a single broad stripe across the top covering the neck and shoulder, two narrower stripes that began at her hips and down her sides in a military styling that would have made been a perfect fit in an episode of Star Voyagers, and a few pits of random raised piping, while Shego's suit was practically identical save for the use of her trademark green where Kim was purple. Over their right breasts were their now clipped on Kimmunicator and Shegofone, while above their left breasts were what appeared to be namestrips reading 'Possible' and 'Shego,' but that were also integrated led flatlite panels with micro-focusing lenticular lenses that allowed them to be used as spots or floods. Strips of similar panels crossed the half-gloved knuckles of each hand... where they conveniently doubled as the equivalent of brass knuckles... and each of them was wearing the slimmed down 'dress' utility belt. Of course, neither was wearing the combat helmets they would wear on missions, or the multiple knife and tool belts that also attached to the uniform, the integrated backpacks or heavy over-boots that went on top of the body-suit's existing built in slim-boots... which could also alternately be fit with a set of standardized swim-fins the Twins had designed.

"No…" Kim admitted. "I'm not looking forward to this, but the one thing we can't control is the press. If they set up camp outside Global Rescue, there's too much chance that someone will see something and report it. And if we can keep the bad guys guessing long enough…"

"So be it. I just… wanted to give you the option."

"Appreciated. But this is so not the drama..."

"Okay, maybe it is. But Shego and I are big girls now. We can handle it."

"Yes..." Dr. Director eyed the two confident young women. If 'handling it' referred to each others' buttocks, where they each currently had a hand casually draped, that was 100% true. Otherwise… it was more like 120%. She'd never seen anyone look more composed or ready. Of course, if they didn't start watching their public displays of affection, people were going to begin calling Kim "Whenever, wherever" Possible… though with who knows how many supervillains after her own ass, who could blame the little hero for sneaking in what she could, when she could? And Shego WAS hot. As, Dr. Director had finally come to realize, was Kim. Her little girl really had grown up, and in the most delightful ways…

"Yes, I think you can," Betty agreed, at the same time wondering if Global Rescue was in need of an exceptionally skilled inventory officer? That would relieve an ethical issue she'd been dealing with herself. And Helen Dassak would look drop dead amazing in one of those skin tight GR uniforms.

"Okay, hon," the redhead spoke up to her raven-haired counterpart. "Are we ready to do this?"

"Yeah, we are."

"Then I guess there's no time like the present," Kim smiled. "Phase one, Razzle Dazzle is go."


	38. Chapter 38

_Author's Note: Promised a quick follow-up. Here it is. As you may have guessed, 37 & 38 were originally one horrendously long chapter that I broke along theme lines. Oh, and while I was doing the final typing of this, ATCOTS broke the 50,000 hit mark. Do I get an FFN t-shirt for that? NO? Man… this place is cold. As a side note, just went back and fixed ep. 17 after someone pointed out that cell was spelled cel across the board. Doy! It's no secret that I work in the animation biz and the computer I do a lot of the posting from is also the one where I do a lot of the scheduling work, so cel – short for animation cel – is actually the default spelling on that spell checker. I do my own proofing, I miss a lot and I take the blame for it… but that cell/cel thing has been up there for weeks and thousands of hits. Please, if you see anything else like that, let me know via a PM. Beyond that, thanks for reading as always and love the reviews. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Doctor Director, Big Daddy Brotherson, Monique, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Summer Gale, Aviarius, Gill and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein, Cyn Rushing and Peter Laska are original to this document and free for re-use with a nod. Hell-O-Gram is NOT available. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 38

#####

The Hell-O-Gram courier looked up as Senor Senior Sr. came back into the room carrying a grotesque yellow and purple sportsbag. Where had the man been for so long?

"I'm sorry," Senior spoke with great apparent embarrassment. "But Junior seems to have left here unexpectedly as well. Are you sure you can't just deliver the package to me?"

"I'm afraid I can't, sir," the Hell-O-Gram man replied courteously and with a great degree of sympathy. He'd made frequent deliveries to the older Senor Senior and had always felt both well treated and well tipped. His deliveries to Junior had been more furtive, usually in the middle of the night, and the only tip he'd ever received was not to wear yellow shoes with plaid pants. "And if you don't know where he is, I'll just have to wait here until he returns or you do know where he is."

The elderly villain looked at the man's shiny red outfit with its ridiculous pointed tail and horns and sighed. Though he had great respect for the service he provided, he REALLY didn't want the man loitering around his hotels and resorts in that costume. People tended to get a bit upset when they saw the spawn of Satan strolling past the steam baths.

"Would it be alright if I just called you..?"

"Nope, sorry again. The sender checked the box for our 'The Devil Will Wait' option. And no, I can't change clothing either. Against company policy to be on duty without horns."

Senor looked at the man, torn between admiration and vexation. If only Junior had half of the commitment this young demon had. Oh, what a wonderful career in evil they could have! But instead, the fool boy was still obsessed with Hollywood and…

Senior Sr. looked down at the bag he was carrying. The bag with that script and the OTHER thing in it.

For all that he practiced Evil, Senor Senior Sr. was actually a very moral and respectable man. Evil was really a hobby and he found it convenient to retain his ethics. Those, along with the lengthy deathbed recant of all his sins that he'd committed to memory, were his ticket to getting into Heaven when the time came.

But as his hand slid into the open zipper of the bag, his hand found the Attitudinator. Yes, it was unethical and immoral but... it WAS his son.

And when pressed between his son and what was ethical, moral or even logical, he inevitably chose the former. That made him a very good father but ultimately a tragically flawed villain.

So be it.

Removing the device, he aimed it at the obstinate delivery man and pressed the red activate button.

"Don't you really want to just leave that package here and go out to play... uh..." He fumbled for an appropriate suggestion and finally came up with "canasta?"

"Why... Canasta sounds great!" The Devil laughed, looking like he'd just eaten an especially tasty soul. "And maybe some badminton! Yeah, here, take the package! I've got a life to live! Oooo, maybe the signboard museum will be open!" Almost tossing the package at the stunned Senior, the courier went skipping out the door, twirling his pointed tail like girl with a skipping rope.

And with that, Senor Senior Sr. had defeated the Devil.

It rather depressed him that it had been so easy.

But now he had to deal with a more difficult task… figuring out what kind of nonsense Junior had got himself involved in this time.

Opening the box, he found a small silver phone with a postee-note on it, one that read simply: SPEED DIAL 6.

Very well. He'd committed mail theft already today, so why not follow it up with listening to someone else's phone conversations? That was… sort of evil, was it not?

He opened the phone and pressed the number.

"Greetings, Senor Senior Junior," A filtered electronic voice spoke. "Or should I call you the Carribean Slasher? If you don't want your father to know what you've been up to, you need to listen to the rest of this message very carefully. But don't worry, I think you'll find that what I'm going to propose fits in nicely with your current plans. And your father will never need to know about those dead girls in the lagoon."

#####

The one thing the reporters were sure of was that something really big was about to happen. Exactly what, they didn't know, but it almost certainly had something to do with the bizarre news story that had broken yesterday regarding a contract on national heroine Kim Possible. From the amount of amped-up security in evidence everywhere at Global Justice Central Administration, it was obvious that the secretive agency was taking no chances… and for the reporters who'd actually made it in through the security screening, it looked like following up on the enigmatic e-letters sent to the major media combines this morning, promising a 'Briefing on the Current Situation' was going to provide some serious pay dirt. But what? Was Possible already dead? Both Global Rescue and Global Justice had remained ominously silent.

The knowledge that an answer might finally be at hand almost made waiting in the already over-packed and overheating GJ Press room bearable. Almost. Of course, the lack of comfort was directly due to the overzealous press corps themselves, who had turned up in unanticipated numbers. While many simply bitched, the more gracious among them acknowledged that it must have taken a lot of quick improvisation to handle the problems caused by the people who nominally spread information professionally suddenly becoming unable to read the clearly lettered words on the security passes that had been sent to the media giants this morning. Apparently the word and number 'ONE(1)' in mass market journalism now represented one reporter, one to three camera operators and frequently a personal make-up artist as well. What so many of those worthies simply didn't seem to understand was that GJ's secure press facility was small. Really small. In the course of a normal year, Global Justice handled at most a hundred press briefings, usually less; and normally for every 30-40 passes issued, GJ saw 5-7 reporters actually show up, the rest choosing to copy the information from the official press release instead. However, this time, when GJ had sent out 70 passes expecting 70 confirmations, they instead had instead received nearly 250 members of the very massed 'media' at the main gate demanding entrance. After first being directed around to the SECURITY gate, where all visitors were required to check in... as noted on the passes... the great horde joined the ten reporters who had actually shown up in the right place and the entire group was checked for proper credentials and matching copies of the e-invite before being passed through the exterior gate into the isolated security building inside the so-called buffer zone. Once there, the remaining 130 were then checked for weapons and allowed through the inner gate and into the Press Zone waiting area, where at the last second a third pass suddenly targeted all the photographers and camera men with a stern "You can go in, but your equipment can't."

"Sorry guys," The GJ screener in charge had shrugged. "There's going to be evidence shown they don't want public just yet. However, there will be some time set aside for interviews out here afterwards, so you can either stow your gear in the lockers back in the bunker or wait with it out here."

No cameras? Evidence? Now emotions really were escalating. Everyone wanted to get the news first, but anyone who checked their gear would get scooped on the visuals by those who waited. After sixty to eighty quick and furious huddles simultaneously determined which part of which news teams would wait and which would go in... by means as various as seniority, pay level, relationship to the station owners and more than a few frantic games of 'One Potato, Two Potato,' and 'Rock, Paper, Scissors,' the final 86 reporters were allowed into the Press Room, where they just barely fit in alongside with the two dozen armed GJ Troopers in the back of the room, the two GJ Techs who would handle the lights, the audio visual and the small camera that was recording the panel itself for posterity, and the panel group which... judging from the number of chairs set up behind the incredibly thin table in front of the 10 foot video screen, would include five people, all of whom would be on the OTHER side of a series of 6 foot high bullet-proof glass partitions.

And then ANOTHER kicker! The announcement that PDAs, pads, phones with internet and texting, etc., COULD be used to take notes during the panel, BUT the entire room was shielded so heavily that no outside signal could get through. Those who'd thought to check in the outer area, however, knew that it was clear, so there would no doubt be a stampede to get out and transmit as soon as the briefing… whatever it was about… was over.

By this point, the reporters had been stewing in the room for about twenty minutes, and judging by the odor that was starting to build, they were just about cooked.

All eyes snapped forward as a small door behind the bullet-proof screen opened and seven people entered. The press corps let out a collective sigh of relief/aha! as, after the first of two additional GJ Troopers, the second and third individuals in the group were immediately recognizable to just about anyone who'd been living on the planet for the past three years: Shego and Kim Possible… still very obviously very much alive. More than just alive, in fact! Both women were wearing the previously unseen new uniforms of the new Global Rescue organization... and every single member of the press made an immediate note to get their picture/video taken with them after the briefing... holey Jehoshaphat, WERE those uniforms or were they spray paint? Talk about ratings bait! Next up, came the nearly as recognizable Dr. Director, GJ's Head of operations, also decked out in a full cerulean-blue GJ dress uniform that would normally be considered hot stuff, but now looked almost dowdy in comparison. Finally, there were two apparent civilians, an attractive young blond woman in jeans and a red T-shirt with the words 'I'm a Professional, Trust Me. Now Take Off Your Clothes.' printed across the chest in white letters and a tall, brown-haired man in a tailored blue jacket with grey slacks.

It took only seconds for the group to find their seats, the new troopers setting up at either end and effectively becoming standing bookends.

"Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media," The one-eyed woman in the center spoke smoothly, her voice picked up and amplified by some kind of hidden microphone. "Our time today is limited, but there WILL be a question and answer period afterwards in addition to the photo and video opportunities after that."

"For those of you who are not aware, I'm Dr. Elizabeth Director, Operational Head Of Global Justice. To my right… your left… are Shego and Kimberly Anne Possible, co-directors of our new affiliate organization, Global Rescue. To my left are Cynthia Rushing and Peter Laska, whose purpose here we'll be explaining momentarily."

"Now, I imagine many of you have questions regarding recent news reports, most stemming from a rather outrageous claim made yesterday by Ms. Summer Gale of WTFN," Betty nodded cooly at the woman sitting in the front row, just three seats from the far right wall of the room and almost directly opposite Kim, who was doing a magnificent job of pretending not to even notice her. Betty still couldn't believe that WTFN had sent Gale, of all people, and as a former felon they could have refused to allow her into the GJ Administrative section where the briefing was to be held, but that would have caused yet another tempest in a teapot. As it was, they'd anticipated this possibility and made sure that it played into their hands. "And part of our purpose in conducting this briefing is to confirm that, to the best of our knowledge, the details of Ms. Gale's story that have been released so far seem to be accurate."

"To be precise, sometime yesterday morning, a ten million dollar bounty for the head of Kim Possible, on a standing contract previously placed by an unknown underworld source, was raised by a multiplier of fifty to half a billion U.S. Dollars."

There was a soft buzz at that as half the reporters in the room made sounds that could have been gasps or sounds of glee, or both, and as one they began entering data on their devices at a furious rate. What were the lyrics in that old song? _'It's interesting when people die?'_ Dr. Director looked briefly sideways but saw that Kim still appeared as cool as a cucumber.

"In fact, at this point in time, we believe we have now identified no less than FOUR Class A Supervillains that have been specifically contracted to kill Kim Possible." Another buzz, this time of true shock. FOUR? SUPERVILLAINS? Betty blitzed on through the noise and hit the next pertinent point while the iron was hot.

"In addition," She added, "We also believe that Ms. Gale, as a former convicted supervillain herself, may unknowingly be in possession of information leading to the identity of at least two more potential assassins. However, as she is currently withholding both that information and its source, despite the danger engendered to both Ms. Possible and the general public, we cannot confirm that at this time."

Gale flushed a deep purple as the reporters on either side of her slowly slid their butt cheeks to the far sides of the chairs, as if she had just emitted the most odious of farts. Betty smiled as if she had not just essentially said _'we know you know what you know because we know you were approached about doing the hit yourself'_ and continued on brightly. Everything she had said WAS completely true and completely legal to say. She was surprised to see that there were apparently quite a few reporters who weren't aware that they had a 'supervillain' in their midst... well, besides Shego, but she was reformed. Summer Gale was a much less certain commodity. "It is, of course, our hope that as a conscientious member of the broadcasting community, Ms. Gale will soon reveal more information in a fashion that benefits the greater good."

"That said," Betty continued, "Our main purpose in holding this briefing is to document and explain the events of yesterday afternoon, when the first team of two Super-Assassins was completely neutralized while attempting to make a surprise attack on Ms. Possible on the outskirts of Middleton."

At that point the buzz and typing that had been building in the room instantly escalated into chaos, reporters forgetting that they were supposed to wait and screaming out questions. Kim, Betty and Shego exchanged frustrated glances. Realizing that no one was going to shut up if they didn't get something, Betty pointed at reporter in the second row who stood out by the dual virtues of being someone who had been here before and was NOT waving like a lunatic. Parker Bernstein from the Middleton Monitor.

"Doctor Director!" The man spoke quickly, stunned at having been picked. "Are you saying that Global Justice intercepted these assassins?"

"No sir, I am not. The neutralization was carried out by Ms. Possible herself."

MORE hubbub, typing and shouted questions "What?" "TWO Villains?" "SUPER Villains?" "Dr. Director!" Gah! What part of wait 'til later did these people NOT understand?

"ORDER!" Screamed Shego, firing a bolt of green plasma into the ceiling.

And suddenly there was order.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Betty used her voice of 'patient authority,' though it was perhaps a bit weak on the 'patient' part. "I have told you that there will be time allotted for questions afterwards. In addition, we have a media presentation that will answer many of your questions better than I ever could. So if you will please allow us to proceed...?"

For once, everyone in the room actually listened. They were also all, very discretely, keeping at least one eye on Shego and her still smoldering digits.

"Thank you," Betty smiled. "I refer you once again to Ms. Rushing and Mr. Laska. For those of you unfamiliar with Ms. Rushing's name, she was one of the two videographers who documented Global Rescue's recent operation on the twin volcanic islands of Māhanga Puia. At the time of yesterday's attack, Ms. Rushing and Ms. Possible were shooting a public service video and Ms. Rushing had the rare courage and initiative to continue filming and documenting the entire attack, despite having been incapacitated by one of the supervillains herself in the process."

"At this point, however," Betty looked past the furiously blushing Cyn to Peter. "There are a few points that need to be made about the video you are about to see. Mr. Laska?"

"Yes," Peter smiled with the grace born of a thousand fundraisers. "As Dr. Director has indicated, Ms. Possible had agreed to shoot a video sequence for my organization, and she had recruited Ms. Rushing to be the photographer. What she hasn't explained was the purpose of the video. To be frank, this was intended to be part of a larger body of videos contributed by a large number of celebrities regarding a subject of a sensitive nature, and it wasn't intended to be revealed until the entire collection was completed. Under the circumstances, however, it may be impossible to complete the shoot as intended... so, with Ms. Possible's permission, we've agreed to release the footage PROVIDED that each network or station signs a contract agreeing to show the entire video a requisite number of times. The use of excerpts WILL be allowed, but we do reserve the right to pull the video from broadcasters that we feel have dealt with us in bad faith. That said, as representatives of those stations, we're allowing you to see the same footage that will be offered to your network within the hour."

Questions started to burble forth again, but Peter cut them off quickly with a smile.

"No, no questions now. Save them for afterward. I think the video speaks for itself."

######

Kim looked quickly at Shego as the lights dimmed and the video screen flickered to life; and was relieved to find the green woman's hand waiting below the table, where it quickly grabbed hers in a reassuring squeeze. They were getting ready to play a very complex psychological game and they were using her… and Shego's… life as part of the opening salvo. Because the best way to manipulate the way the media handled one news story was to use another.

The blue screen blacked out, then was replaced by her own image, standing in front of the woods that had seemed so tranquil yesterday morning. There was a peaceful, almost serene look on her features, her calm face hiding more nerves then she'd dared show. She'd been trying to project concern and sincerity. Looking at it now, Kim thought she'd managed concern.

"_Hi. I'm Kim Possible,"_ Her image said… it was always weird hearing her own recorded voice. It was so much higher than what she heard in her own head. _"And I'm... just your basic average girl. If you've heard anything about me... and there's no reason you should have..."_

The reporters tittered at that for some reason. Shego's hand squeeze kept her focused as her on-screen self grinned in self-depreciation.

"…_you might have heard that I used to be a cheerleader or that I've done a little modeling. Mostly, though, what I've done is spent a good portion of my life trying to help others and to save the world. It's no big, it's just part of who I am." _

"_And another part of me,"_ She smiled softly, more seriously, _"One that you probably haven't heard about, is that I'm gay."_

An audible gasp from 86 throats engulfed the room. Fingers that had been slowly typing exploded in furies of activity. She was out. Out out.

It was as if her screen image actually heard the response in the room. _"Whoa. Did I just grow a third eye?"_

"_Of course not,"_ Her video avatar's smile grew more knowing. _"I'm the same person I've always been. In fact, although it took a long time to realize who I was sexually, current scientific research indicates that a person's sexual orientation itself is something that may be set as early as in the womb."_ Another wry grin. _"A bit late to change that now. Nor is it all that unusual... depending on the survey, up to 10% of the U.S. population identifies itself as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgendered... that's versus two percent of the population who are natural redheads. And um... yeah, I'm that too. You may have heard."_

The typing had never stopped, but now there were one or two laughs at her little reference to the internet blow-ups. Well, hell Possible. Maybe you should start posting your gyn exams next?

"_But in the end, so what? Those are just statistics. What's important is how you feel about yourself. Because whatever your sexuality, you're the one who has to live within your own skin, and experience your own life."_

The message must be getting through, where this was going, because the typing was dying down. More just listening. Good.

"_And if you're a GLBT teen, or think you may be, you may often feel as though you're caught in a crossfire, pressured to do things that don't feel right for you. Personally, I don't think it's anyone's business except yours and your consenting partner's. But let's be honest. There will be those who try to impose their own views and lifestyles on you. From both sides. But it's not their life you're leading, it's yours. And if we agree that telling lies to others is wrong, then isn't telling lies to yourself the greatest lie of all?"_

Now she was getting to the meat of the message, and even as the Kim-onscreen grew more serious, the real Kim felt the first twinges of a smile come to her own lips. She hadn't screwed this up.

"_I can't tell you how to handle your developing sexual identity, because I'm not you and only you know who you really are. However, as someone who's always been... a little different... I can tell you that simply being different doesn't make you wrong, it just makes you you. And there's nothing wrong with that. You are here for a reason. And you ARE important. Everyone is. Never, ever doubt that. A world without you would be a darker, sadder place."_

If there was anyone who hadn't figured out that this was in response to the recent stories about teen suicides, they had put it together now.

"_If you are having problems, if you've hit a moment of crisis and need help… have faith in yourself, have faith in your friends and family, and have faith in the higher powers that made you who you are. And if you need someone to talk to… someone from a background similar to yours, someone who's been where you are now, someone who understands, there are networks of people who can help... confidentially. With no strings attached. It's your life we're talking about. Please, make the call."_

Yes… that was the message that she wanted to get out. And even if the special never came together, if Peter never found another non-entertainment personality to come forward, the message was about to hit the national airwaves in a bigger way than they could have ever anticipated. But now the real roller coaster began.

As her onscreen persona finished listening to what Peter was saying, was puzzling over the mysterious silence she'd noticed, Aviarius struck.

Now the reporters recoiled and watched in horror as that entire desperate fight unraveled on the screen. Kim couldn't look. It had been too close, too many places where, now that she had time to watch without the benefits of firing adrenaline, she SHOULD have died. And she couldn't let herself seem fazed now. Because everything they were doing, that they were about to do, was designed to push as many buttons as they could, to make whoever was behind this so mad that they'd make rash, unplanned moves in response and expose themselves.

And then, when they knew which son or daughter of a bitch they were after, they were going to take the battle back to them. With interest.

As if she had read her mind, Shego squeezed her hand once more in confirmation, then lifted their joined hands together up onto the narrow desk. Now that Kim was out, that's all the press would need to get the last bit of the story.

The room lights came back on.

And Kim Possible and Shego, united, turned to face the nation.

#####

The reporters were in shock overload. Two major stories, one on top of the other. Which went first? And BY GOD! Their network HAD to have that video! YES! That was the first priority! Get the damn video!

And Holy Cripes! The reality of what they had just seen was only now really sinking in. That hadn't been a movie or a reenactment. They'd literally seen a fight to the death… two of them at once! And the only reason they HADN'T seen a slaying on camera was because Kim Possible had chosen not to commit one. There was no doubt about that. The small redhead sitting in front of them holding… OH DAMN! She was holding SHEGO's hand! Then they were…. Gah! The story kept getting bigger! That wisp of a girl had become a human chainsaw, taking apart two impossibly powerful villains who'd had the twin advantages of weapons AND surprise! And HAD she wanted to take lethal action against them, which she would have been entirely justified in doing, she could have done it easily.

That was a message that especially hit home for one Summer Gale, who alone of all the reporters wasn't typing or making notes or screaming out questions. Because Summer Gale was looking into the eyes of Kim Possible. And she now knew that it didn't matter WHO was behind the death contract or WHAT they might do to her if she talked. Because whoever or whatever they were, they weren't a fraction as scary as the small redhead sitting only feet away from her was… let alone her GIRLFRIEND Shego!

Summer Gale's lips mouthed two words.

"I'll talk."

And Kim Possible smiled a thin, satisfied smile.

Objective one had been met. Things were going exactly as planned. She caught Dr. Director's eye, then Shego's, and there was no need to say a single word. They were ready to play out the next card and the extra aces were already in the deck.

Phase two was go.


	39. Chapter 39

_Author's Note: Is the plot convoluted enough yet? Rest assured that everything is just about ready for the kick-off... and I have no idea why I have this sudden fascination with sports analogies... I don't even LIKE American style football. A big call out to Ffordesoon... I took your line! Not sure if you were serious about my using it, but it's too late now... and I think it worked out rather well. Thanks once more for all the great comments and reviews and... again... avoid reading the legal stuff to avoid spoilers... there are some BIGGIES here - __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Doctor Director, Big Daddy Brotherson, Monique, Tara, Will Du, Camille Leon, Bonnie Rockwaller, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Summer Gale, Jack Hench, Nanny Nane, Aviarius, Gill and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein, Cyn Rushing and Peter Laska are original to this document and free for re-use with a nod. Hell-O-Gram is NOT available. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 39

#####

"Ms. Possible! Ms. Possible!"

"Sorry, that's it!" Shego stepped in-between the still thronging reporters as they flooded out onto the tarmac of the small Global Justice parking area, forming an impassible green barrier of flaming eyes and possibly even flaming-er hands. "We have a plane to catch!"

Checking out of the corner of her eye to make sure Kim had actually gotten IN the damn GJ Armored security transport, Shego took one second to make a little curtsy to the assembled media, then hopped into the vehicle next to her girlfriend, where they were immediately sandwiched between two stoic-looking female GJ troopers. Two larger, more typically macho trooper types sat in the front of the cab, waiting for a signal from a gate officer. The massive metal doors slammed shut and seconds later, the 'all-clear' from the gate came through. Gunning the engine, the driver pulled the armored vehicle forward, where it merged into a convoy of six similar vehicles, three of which sported impressive anti-aircraft turrets while the others all bristled with more conventional ground weaponry.

Shego glanced outside the tiny slit of a window and saw that, in fact, the convoy was already being joined by a small entourage of civilian vehicles.

"Isn't it amazing that they KNOW there are people trying to kill you, yet they see nothing wrong with having cars out here waiting to tail us?"

"Now, you don't know that dear," Kim sighed. "Give them the benefit of the doubt. Those could be real assassins, just doing their job."

"Nah, pros could never be that sloppy," Shego grimaced, noting the signs of fatigue that were starting to build around Kim's eyes. Wonder-girl or not, at some point the redhead's little engine that could was going to run out of 'I think I can' and crash... and Shego felt more than a little guilty at having contributed to that last night.

It had begun during the planning meeting yesterday. Shego and Dr. Director had both made their contributions, but once Kim had dialed Wade into the conversation it was like they had stepped into an alternate dimension where only those two had really known the language. Speaking in what might have been the verbal equivalent of shorthand, complex technical discussions had blitzed by so quickly that Shego... who was no slouch in the physical sciences... often was struggling to keep up when they dropped into psychobabble. Dr. Director, on the other hand, had simply thrown up her hands in a "I'll wait to be filled in gesture" and started pouring out glasses of soda from a bar hidden beneath her desk. Shego had passed on the offered scotch and tossed in her few ideas at the end. For the first time, though, she finally understood what it was that had drawn Kim and Wade together to begin with; the shared common experience of thinking in five dimensions and sixteen parallel threads when everyone around them was only thinking in four and three. Who else except Kim Possible could have managed to work getting national distribution for a Suicide Prevention commercial and her own coming out video into a master plan to confront a horde of major villains? Who else would even think of it? And yet the commitment she'd made to Peter Laska's organization seemed to carry every bit as much weight for her as protecting her own life.

The part that had finally, completely thrown Shego, though, came at the end, as they were actually beginning to implement the complex physical arrangements. While Dr. Director had been using the videophone to talk with her top agents, Kim, who had been typing on her Kimmunicator, asked if she could use the printer. As Shego watched, Kim printed out several pages, then passed them to Betty who, without ever breaking her phone conversation, had signed them, stamped them with a small red seal, and handed them back to Kim along with an envelope and a pen.

It took until Kim had written "Just in case" on the envelope and handed it back to Betty that Shego realized what she had just witnessed.

Kim had been writing her will. No, not even writing it. Updating it.

"How long..." Was what Shego had managed to get out.

Kim didn't answer. Didn't seem like she COULD answer.

"Since she was 15," Betty filled in softly. "The first time she almost didn't get back."

"I just... don't want to leave any unanswered questions," Kim admitted slowly, then brought up a forced smile and seemed to shrug it off. "But it's okay, really. I'm not planning on dying anytime soon. In fact, the plan is pretty much NOT to die."

Things had seemed to return to normalcy after that... well, as normal as THEIR lives were ever going to get. But then last night... when she'd TRIED to get Kim to go to sleep, the Princess hadn't just been wired, she'd been almost desperate to make love repeatedly. Had practically torn Shego's clothes from her when they'd got to the visitor's apartment Dr. Director had set them up with for the duration. And Shego had been more than willing to go along with it. She'd needed Kim too, with a savagery that stunned her, for all that their lovemaking lacked almost all of their usual acrobatics... as bruised and broken as Kim was, anything more would have been as much torture as sex. Mostly it had been about kissing, touching, holding and tasting... and it had only been when Shego had tasted the first salty drops of moisture trickling from Kim's eyes that she'd realized that 'okay' was clearly a relative term, how much Kim had really been holding in, and how much of her confident attitude had been a mask she'd been wearing to keep everyone elses' spirits up.

Once she HAD realized it though, at least Shego had known what to do: simply wrap her arms around Kim and hold her tightly until it all finally came gushing out... which it did, in a heaving torrent of tears and wracking sobs that went on for minutes until finally subsiding into a spate of shuddering tremors and shakily whispered apologies of "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

"'s'okay. It's okay," Shego had simply comforted her tenderly... if somewhat awkwardly. Usually it went the other way with them but Kim had been running on sheer guts and bravado since the attack. The crazy little redhead had more of those than any six other people combined, but everybody had a breaking point...

"Just can't... can't let anyone else see this getting to me," Kim had sniffled. "You're the only one I... sorry."

"For what, Kitten? For being human? Besides..." She'd wrapped Kim's beautiful naked body even closer, kissing her way up one side and down the other... "The fact that you trust me, of all people, to see you like this..." She could only hope her own trembling voice could properly convey the incredible sense of pride that that knowledge kindled within her... "It just makes me understand how much you really do love me... almost as much as I love you."

"'love you more," Kim had insisted, and had attempted to prove it in her usual indomitable fashion, but Shego was sure she'd gotten more than enough of her own licks in... in every sense of the word... to assure her Princess that THAT particular contest was always going to end in a draw. And when they finally HAD gone to sleep, Kim nestled into her so tightly that they might as well have been one being, the smile on the younger girl's face as she slept had been a greater reward than anything that Shego the thief had ever stole. Because the heart behind it had been given freely. And would be hers forever.

As long as she could protect it.

It was funny how things worked out. All her life, all she'd ever wanted was a place to belong. The sham of a family that had been manufactured for her and her brothers had hardly counted. She'd fooled herself into believing something had existed with Drakken… he'd certainly played on that enough and he HAD needed her. It had sufficed for a while but… she'd wanted… desperately… something more. To belong someplace. With someone. To someone. And when she'd realized who her heart had decided that someone was, her arch enemy, she'd felt as if the universe had been laughing in her face yet again. And yet, somehow, miraculously, the Princess had been waiting for HER. And if the dragon had ever had any ice left in her heart, it had vaporized that day. She lived for her Princess. She would die for her Princess. And nothing, not even all the legions of hell combined, were going to take her from her!

And because of that resolve, right now she was wondering if she shouldn't have just clonked her Princess over her stubborn little head instead of fucking her silly last night. At least that way she could have made sure she'd have gotten a little more desperately needed sleep. God knows, they probably wouldn't be getting much over the next 24 hours, and for all this to work, Kim Possible was going to have to be at the very top of her game.

#####

That same 24 hour plan was running through Kim's head as well. The Q&A session had been every bit as grueling as the small hero had suspected it would be, but fortunately, Dr. Director had prefaced the whole thing by pulling out a cheap kitchen timer and stating (again) that GJ WAS videotaping the whole thing and that the video would be available immediately afterwards BUT that the session would last exactly 45 minutes and not a second longer. At that time, all questions would end, the doors to the outside area would be unlocked and the following video/photo opportunity would follow for no more than 30 minutes. Precisely. Take too much time and suffer the wrath of your fellow journalists, because after that, Shego, Kim and the others would have classified business elsewhere.

So, of course "And what classified business is this that you're referring to?" was the very first question asked.

"That would be classified," Dr. Director replied, rolling her eyes.

"Actually," Kim interrupted, seeing an opportunity to goose the script ahead. "It's Global Rescue business that was already in place. Setting up additional contracts for regional base facilities. Shego and I have no intention to let this push back our existing agenda. Global Rescue is in the business of saving people's lives. That's too important to interrupt over matters of personal safety."

That hadn't been the stupidest question though, that had come courtesy of a vacuous correspondent for a large cable news outfit, who provided the winning entry: "Just how do you feel about this death threat being made against you?"

"Excuse me?" Kim had blinked in disbelief. "That's your question? How do you think I feel?" Even there, though, she'd ended up pulling it back on message. "But let's get one thing straight, it's not a death threat. It's a contract, one that's been on my head a long time now. And I'm still here."

"The difference between a contract and threat," Shego had elaborated. "Is that anyone can make a threat, but a contract comes from some ball-less coward trying to pay for a service they'd never have the cojones to try themselves. But the first two assassins they sent are already squealing like pigs, and there're only so many..."

Kim cut her off before she could reveal any more 'confidential' information. "What Shego means is that we already have a number of leads and expect to have the people behind the offer within a few days."

And it went on like that for a half dozen more questions until someone finally got up the nerve to ask about the OTHER big story... Kim was surprised that it took THAT long, but then, there were still a lot of sideways glances being made at Shego. Yes... heh heh... there WAS something to be said for not taunting the dragon. But finally:

"Ms. Possible!" It was a reporter from one of the major TV news 'magazines.' "Why have you decided to come out now, of all times?"

"I didn't decide to come out now," Kim had pointed out. "To begin with, I've never had any intention of hiding who and what I am from anyone. What I did decide to do was participate in a video where acknowledging that I'm gay might make a difference in the lives of thousands of at-risk teenagers. In case you haven't been watching your own channel, there's been a recent escalation in teen suicides directly related to gay bashing and intimidation. In the face of that kind of evil, how could I NOT do something?"

"Evil? You're saying that speaking out against homosexuality is evil?"

"I'm saying that intimidating, brutalizing and abusing anyone, for the simple reason that they're different, is evil. Do you have a better word for it?"

"But your... Shego IS your... uh..."

"Girlfriend? Lover? Honeybuns?" Shego volunteered helpfully.

"Uh... yeah. Isn't... wasn't... she evil?"

"By her own definition, yes." Kim clarified. "But she was a hero before that, and knowing everything that she's been through, she was as much a victim as a villain. If history teaches us anything, it's that someone can end up on the wrong side of the law for any number of reasons whereas evil... what was your exact wording, Shego?"

"Evil is doing something you know is wrong, or allowing something you know is wrong to happen and not doing anything to stop it. And yes, there was a period where I believed I was evil. Where I WAS evil. But the thing about being around Princess Nice here, is that all that goody-two-shoes-ness starts rubbing off on you and next thing you know you've gotten back in the habit of saving the world."

"SOOO sorry to have inconvenienced you."

"Oh, you make up for it in other ways," Shego had grinned in the way Kim had learned meant that something especially naughty was coming, especially when the green woman had turned her smirk-filled eyes back on the suddenly quite hapless looking reporter. "And if the fact that America's sweetheart is batting for the other team bothers you; try looking at it this way: don't you really think that getting an EVIL Shego off the streets is worth the price of Kim Possible becoming a carpet mun..."

"SHEGO!"

Well, they'd been entertaining, that was for sure. Dr. Director had certainly seemed to think so. Kim just hoped that by the time all those snippets were put together and coupled with the time and effort they'd put in at the photo-ops afterwards, where they'd been glad to pose together but NOT touching each other inappropriately (well, for this particular purpose and venue, anyway,) the end result would be enough clips and sound bites to accomplish their purpose.

"Coming up on the airport ladies," The driver warned them. "Looks like Agent Du's got your Lear on the tarmac and waiting."

"That's just Mister Du, now," Kim corrected softly. "His full transfer's been finalized."

"Who would have thunk he'd have realized it was a promotion a week ago?" Shego grinned, then nodded to the female guards on either side of them. "You ready girls?"

######

As the units of the convoy split up, taking defensive positions in a perimeter about the green and black striped private lear, a half dozen news teams were documenting the spectacle. Not all managed to get shots of the other armored units deploying, but they all grabbed fantastic shots of the transport van's doors opening and almost identical... save for slight variations in angle... footage of Kim, Shego and the two guards moving quickly across the tarmac. One of the blue clad troopers went first, waited for the gate ramp on the Lear to drop, then ran up the stairs, making an 'all clear' sign after checking out the interior. At that point Kim and Shego moved quickly across, followed closely by the second trooper... not quite running until the very end, when they sprinted rapidly up the inclined stairs. All of this was caught in breathtakingly dramatic closeup by the auto-stabilized supertelephoto lenses the news teams had on their ENG camera systems, and as Kim reached the top of the stairs and turned, leaning against the railing with her left arm, the expression of confidence on her face was unmistakable even if the words were unintelligible... the parabolic and super-shotgun microphones the hastily summoned news teams had managed to pull together being not quite up to the task... but the Go City affiliate crew did catch two gems "...we'll be back in...four days, after..." and "...tell Dr. Director thanks."

Then Kim was inside the plane and the door was closing, though Shego could already be seen moving into the front of the Lear next to the pilot. If a supervillain HAD been tailing them, this would be the last moment of opportunity, but apparently the press had been more on the ball than the forces of evil. Within seconds, the Lear was speeding down the jetway and up into the sky.

At no time had the guards ever let up their vigilance, but now that Shego and Possible were safely off, the sense of relief was palpable. The two guards who'd escorted the red and green pair to the private jet lowered their weapons and ran back to the armored vehicle, and within seconds, the airfield was empty as if there had never been a GJ presence.

######

On board the Lear, Will turned to Shego and smiled. "Well, you made it. How's the hand?"

"Hurts like a son of a bitch," Shego growled, her features suddenly rippling and distorting as the projected image from the Kimmunicator on her belt ceased sheathing her entire body with an absolutely perfect virtual image of the Green Woman. "IJHTW," Monique, who'd been UNDER the image, sighed.

Although the holograms that Wade's devices projected were extraordinarily real, the one issue they still hadn't been able to get around was the fact that they had no mass or real body. That meant that if they walked across a surface like grass or sand, the grass wouldn't be disturbed and there would be no footprints left behind. Worse, under bright light, especially sunlight, they could appear transparent at time, especially if there was a bright object behind them. The final problem was that a hologram, being light itself, couldn't cast a shadow, the end result being that while the 'grams worked well indoors under moderate to low lighting, they immediately twigged the eye as wrong when other objects around them WERE casting shadows.

But apparently Kim had picked up something while talking with Shego that had given her the idea of using paired Kimmunicators to simultaneously track a human being's body movements and then layer an image on top of them. The person provided the shadow and ruffled the grass because they were actually there, and any transparency in the image was filled in by the person behind it. The catch was they DID have to do it with people working in pairs, as a single projector couldn't possibly cover every conceivable angle, and the redundancy in data transfer was critical given that the real image processing was taking place back at Wade's command center.

"That mean's 'I just hope this works,'" Tara translated for Will, allowing her own 'Kim' disguise to drop. "So where to now?"

"Our flight plan says São Paulo, Brazil," Will shrugged. "But it'll be dark by the time I get there, so we can use the plane's projectors to show Kim and Shego leaving. But before that, between the stealth mode and the chameleon skin the boys put on this thing, I can probably get away with dropping you anyplace you want on the way... and it's probably best that you're NOT in São Paulo."

"Hmmm..." Monique grinned. "Hey Tara, you ever wanted to check out Rio?"

"Drinking age 18? Topless beaches? You're on, girlfriend!"

_'Damn' _Will thought to himself. Why did he have a feeling he was about to unleash an unexpected storm on the Brazilian people? And why did he wish he could be there to watch? He'd seen Tara's shot in the calender. Topless beaches...? Gah!

Unfortunately, he needed to be back at Global Rescue as soon he could, and was about to start a LONG night of short hops, transfers and tube-jumps using GJ's sub-Gulf of Mexico tunnel network after abandoning the Lear in São Paulo. The longer people thought Shego and Kim weren't in the U.S., the better chance they had at catching their enemies off guard. And he had every conviction that they WOULD pull it off. Because, as scripted, the part of Operation Turkey Shoot that was codenamed SHELL GAME, was absolutely brilliant.

######

"_The difference between a contract and threat," _Shego was saying. "_Is that anyone can make a threat, but a contract comes from some ball-less coward trying to pay for a service they'd never have the cojones to try themselves. But the first two assassins they sent are already squealing like pigs, and there're only so many..."_

Brotherson scanned the video back.

Shego:_ "But the first two assassins they sent are already squealing like pigs..."_

And then forward again.

Possible:_ "What Shego means is that we already have a number of leads and expect to have the people behind the offer within a few days."_

This just wasn't right. Both Shego and Possible seemed far too calm. Far too assured. Brotherson found himself reviewing his own actions despite the fact that he knew they had been flawless. But... had he made a mistake? He'd let on more than one little hint about his identity to Aviarius. And Gale hadn't been dealt with yet. That was a loose end that should have already been taken care of, and yet the damn woman had actually been at the press conference right when the Mathter SHOULD have been paying her a visit!

Oh damn! She knew about the Mathter of course, and now HE'D been in contact with the numbers obsessed fool... multiple times, no less, to make a terrible accidental pun that could end up having even more terrible if no less accidental repercussions for B.D. Brotherson.

And then there'd been the video of the battle itself. He'd felt a cold chill running up his spine as he'd seen Possible literally take Aviarius and Gill apart simultaneously. No human could fight like that! Could she really BE a god-damned Paladin? he still had stronger teams out there, of course, but now they would be meeting a united Possible/Shego front and that was going to be... nightmarish. But surely someone would succeed... they HAD to!

He forwarded to the next part of the video. Another reporter asking Possible another stupid question. The woman's completely unexpected announcement that she was queer seemed to have reduced even the most intelligent members of the press pool to absolute imbeciles! Only a handful of prying questions, no real attempts to trick the panel members into betraying what their real plans were. About the only thing the whole wretched press corps had done that gave Brotherson anything to work with at all was when they had tailed the women and their escorts to the airport. At least from that he'd been able to dig down and find that the plane had originally been bound for São Paulo. Brazil?

That was frighteningly close to his own secret location. As well as to the area where he was setting up the Great Trap... the grand finale of his game. He'd been trying to come up with something that would force Possible to come out of hiding, and the collapse of one of Central America's greatest archeological treasures and hundreds of international tourists buried alive underground would force a mobilization of the exact same resources as had been used to deal with the twin volcano disaster. Even terrified for her life, that would have drawn the great Kim Possible into the field where his forces could tear her asunder.

Except she wasn't hiding. The stupid bitch wasn't even INTIMIDATED! She'd been posing for PHOTO OPS with her fucking GIRLFRIEND!

He fast forwarded to another vexing spot in the video.

Reporter: _"So you're saying you're not scared?"_

Possible:_ "No, I'm saying I expect they'll run out of people stupid enough to try it. They had their best shot yesterday. Now we're aware of the escalated threat and on THEIR tail. But I'd be an idiot if I wasn't worried. That's why Doctor Director has graciously offered to have my family transferred to a Global Justice safe facility for the duration... although frankly, anyone who's ever met my brothers will tell you that I'm the LEAST dangerous Possible."_

Brotherson growled. It had to be a bluff. It HAD to be. He'd keep making his plans. She was the one who was going to blink. Not him.

But there was yet another factor that had been tossed into the game. And that HAD to be intentional.

He rewound the video back to the worst part, the part that was sure to make Hench go completely ballistic.

"_...a contract comes from some ball-less coward trying to pay for a service they'd never have the cojones to try themselves." _

By the dark Gods, Brotherson swore to himself. It was as if they were TRYING to bring Gotterdammerung and the Apocalypse down upon themselves!

######

Kim Possible, aka Faux-Kim, aka the former Bonnie Rockwaller, sat in the tiny room she'd been given in Castle Senior, and stared at the magazines again. Her attempts to understand the languages had been futile. But she had KNOWN those languages! She HAD! But even without being able to read the words, she now knew for sure that something was just WRONG!

It had taken her a while to dope Junior's food, but the results had been quite satisfactory. Even if she hadn't managed to get the kind of privacy she had wanted, she'd at least had the amusement of seeing him race for the bathroom a half dozen times now. That had been especially enjoyable right after they had first arrived at this horrid place, when most of the ancient toilets had still been quite infested with a variety of spiders and other repulsive critters with more legs than they had any business having. The sound of his scream on one such occasion... he never had said exactly WHAT had happened, but he'd gone outside and filled an empty Snickerdoodle bag with snow and stuck it in his pants... had made her want to laugh like a madwoman.

Which would have been fine except she was beginning to think she WAS a madwoman.

To begin with, she had seen Junior's FATHER! She knew that's who it was, even though no one told her, but the man had been walking down a hall with Junior and then, when she ran around the corner, he had been gone, replaced by that sexy blonde woman who'd been waiting for them. Who Junior had only introduced as Camille. But she KNEW she had seen him! And the sight had filled her with such a horrified, instinctive dread that it made her question her very sanity. Why would she fear anyone so much?

Was she seeing ghosts?

And then all these new employees who were arriving... there was something wrong with them too. They were way too willing to do whatever Junior said, and he seemed to enjoy lording that power over them... when he wasn't on the verge of crapping his pants. Or doing it.

snicker

And there were so many of them, but Junior wouldn't explain WHY they were here. Why ANY of them, including herself, had had to come to this disgusting place. Something to do with capturing the fake Kim Possible, but whatever those plans were, he wasn't sharing them. In fact, he had barely spoken to her since they'd arrived.

And if all that hadn't left her with a feeling that something was simply very wrong, the latest sign that SOMETHING was going on had been the most obvious.

He'd locked her in her room.

Oh, for her own safety, of course. That's what he'd said. But he'd promised... PROMISED! That she could help lay the traps and now Junior and that blonde and all these HENCHMEN were running the show and NOBODY would TELL her a GODDAMNED THING!

But she could find out. Oh yes. And Junior was a bigger idiot than she had thought if he believed he could keep Kim Possible locked away with something as simple as a door.

The window to her room was small, but it was sufficient to see that it looked out onto a part of the grounds that had relatively few henchmen... and why did that word keep seeming to have a double meaning... were stationed. And they never looked up, focusing their attention instead on the trucks that kept arriving from out of the deep woods.

Twenty feet down, there was a small ledge. It was at least another seventy beyond that to the hard and rocky ground below, but that was no issue. She was Kim Possible, right?

It was the work of mere seconds to pry the metal bars from the ancient rotted mortar, only seconds more to perch herself in the window frame and gauge the distance. If she'd been so inclined, she could have turned about and slowly crawled down foot by foot using her fingers and toes, but at the moment she was feeling an incredible rush from finally doing something! From taking charge! And since, of course, she COULD do anything...

She jumped.

######

Gemini sat at his desk, working furiously. The local Night's Inn was stocked full of henchmen and within a few hours he'd be able to assemble them in the former Tire and Lube center he'd grabbed on a one month sublease. Weapons were in route from Colonel Chaos' Weapons Surplus Shack... their prices were much better than Hench's and he didn't need any fancy gas guns or stunners this time. They had one mission and that was to kill a stupid girl. She could dodge all she wanted, but trap her in a big enough hail of bullets and she'd die, die DIE!

Though, come to think of it, some napalm would be good too. He scrawled out a SmartyMart shopping list... flaked detergent, polystyrene foam and, of course, gasoline. He was trying to decide on a delivery method when he heard the scuffle outside.

"I told you! He's not seeing anyone! No! No! Aaaaaaa!"

His door burst open and the bloodied body of his new and soon to be ex-beta flew across the room, impacting against the wall with a sickening thunk. Outside two more men were sprawled half-unconscious and badly beaten.

Gemini barely noticed. His jaw was hanging open in horror. His brain couldn't believe what he was seeing.

His bladder unloaded itself.

"You were supposed to call me, Sheldon," the malevolent entity said, hefting the long metallic object that had done such damage to Beta with an expert flick of the wrist. The action caused its long black cape to flutter ominously, and not even the Grim Reaper itself could have a sickening pallor like that horrible face. A face that Gemini knew all too well.

"I... I thought it was a joke!" Gemini protested! "I thought you were dead!"

"No," the cold, bitter eyes that bore into Sheldon Directors very core were red and filled with blood. "As you can see, I'm quite alive and healthy."

Sheldon... because to this monster, this living nightmare, he would never be more than 'Little Sheldon'... shrank back into the corner, cowering. "I'm sorry! I'M SORRRYYY!"

And then he felt the pain... the agonizing pain... as the beast used the hold... THAT hold... and lifted him by his ear! He could feel its foul, fetid breath oozing onto his face, even though he dared not open his eyes! This was a nightmare! Please! Let this be a nightmare!

"Wet yourself again, have we Shelly?" The creature half-chuckled, half-clucked. "And what are we up to now?"

It plucked the paper he'd just been writing on from the table and squinted at it with eyes that were already little more than slits.

"Napalm?" It laughed. "Have you never learned? You and your silly weapons! Do you remember what I said would happen with that first little gun of yours? What you would do?"

"You..." Sheldon stammered... "You said I would shoot my eye out!"

"And so you did!" The monster barked. "And you somehow managed to take out poor little Betsy's with the same shot. That's what turned her into such a do-gooder, you know? All your fault. As usual."

"But," The nightmare from Sheldon's past growled as it took his seat at his desk and motioned for him to remain in the corner. "Fortunately I'M here now, and I'll make sure things get done properly."

A savage toothless grin engulfed the wrinkled face of the hideous apparition, and it patted back its little grey bun of hair. "I was the only one who could ever keep you and Betty in line as children," it snarled. "And..."

"I have my own score to settle with Kim Possible," cackled the ancient monster that men... and frightened children... called Nanny Nane.

"Now be a good boy and get me some tea."


	40. Chapter 40

_Author's Note: Back mostly with the villains this time. Don't want to give away too much of SHELL GAME just yet. But as you can see, we're cocking the gun… next ep… BAM! Thanks again for all the reviews and comments. See you in a day or so. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Bonnie Rockwaller, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Summer Gale, Jack Hench, Aviarius, Gill and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Anna Stein, Cyn Rushing and Peter Laska are original to this document and free for re-use with a nod. Hell-O-Gram is NOT available. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 40

#####

"That BITCH!" Hench screamed as he threw the practice grenade he'd been using as a paperweight at the TV, where it impacted with a strange crack, leaving a radiating bullet-style hit in the middle of the LCD screen. "Bitches PLURAL!"

His heart pounding, he forced himself to pull back the anger, to suck it in as he did everyday when dealing with the stupid idiots who worked for him. They were only words. Only WORDS!

But they had stung. Not just from the way Shego had made the words 'ball-less coward' drip with spite, but from how he knew those words would resonate with Brotherson and the Pay Out Agent. No doubt they were laughing even now. At Hench's expense. Thinking how true they were. But he'd show them.

And he'd show Shego as well! Once Possible was dead, once he could afford it, ANOTHER bounty! And then we'd see who had the last laugh! He'd have to call Raymond and…

As if by magic, there was a knock on the door and Raymond entered without waiting. Hench didn't have to see the Accountant's face to know that whatever it was about, it wasn't good. Raymond normally didn't take a dump without filing three forms of advance notification and setting a meeting to discuss the idea of having a meeting. To barge in…

And, in any case, the look on Raymond's face WAS a dead giveaway that some kind of mega-ultra-shitstorm was coming.

"Jack…" Raymond asked nervously… no, nervously was too kind a word… he looked like he was about to simultaneously undergo a full-cavity search, a root canal with no anesthesia AND a comprehensive five year audit of the books. BOTH sets. "Have you been moving some of the money around without telling me?"

And with a sinking 'oh crap" moment, Hench suddenly knew what he must have done… what must have happened.

And if he was right, the whole world was now teetering on the edge of total destruction.

#####

She almost missed the tiny ledge, but at the last second her desperate heels caught the edge, breaking what would have been an otherwise fatal fall!

It didn't matter.

The ancient stone extrusion… which for years hadn't had to support any weight greater than that of a few feet of snow or one of the scrawny birds that periodically showed up at Castelul de Sânge looking for the leftover bits of human carrion that had once dotted the landscape here in brighter days (if you were a vulture)… instantly gave way and Kim/Bonnie found herself hurtling downwards again!

Somehow, however, she managed to flip herself at the same time, her frantically outstretched arms grasping in panic for ANYTHING to break her fall and… miracle of miracles… her desperately scrabbling fingers caught the next bit of masonry over. She felt two of her nails snap off as they hit the surface and another went as her full weight plus her downward thrust simply ripped it off her right hand as it closed in a deathgrip over the unexpectedly solid object! She barely had time to realize that THIS time it was going to hold as she heard the stones she had dislodged hit the crusted-over snow below, making sounds exactly like those she imagined her head would make when dropped from this distance.

Spler-crunch! Spler-crunch!

Dangling high above the rocky, henchman-patrolled ground, Faux-Kim looked down behind and below her with an audible gulp, but amazingly, no one seemed to have heard or noticed her. Blood was running down her right arm, but the same viselike grip that was holding her up kept her from being able to see the ruin of a finger that was providing most of the drip. But it had done its job and whatever price she'd pay in disfigurement was small compared to what COULD have happened.

Next time, she'd take the SLOW way down. Definitely.

With cautious, deliberate motions, checking every finger-hold for solidity before shifting her weight, she began carefully working her way back up towards the ledge. One baby step at a time. She could do this.

She could do anything.

Couldn't she?

#####

With a mighty shove, Motor Ed forced the huge metal beam back until it was almost straight and gave it a few huge slams with the sledgehammer he was holding the way a doctor would those tiny rubber mallets they use to check reflexes. The machine he was working on would be his masterpiece, the greatest engine of destruction he'd ever reassembled. IF he could get the damn legs straight. IF he could squeeze in the time…

There was a creaking sound, but the metal bent in the direction he intended, so he pushed again and prepared to swing…

And felt the zipper on his fly go.

"No!" He yelled at the half-naked blue woman who was frantically pulling him out of his pants as fast as he could pull it back in! "I said no and no means no! Seriously! Don't you, like, get it Blue?"

"This is your fault," Electronique hissed, crackling ominously with energy even as her mouth engulfed his testicles. "You did this to me!" she protested around a mouth full of man sack!

"WHAT?" Ed screamed, trying to pull himself free, but her teeth had him in a hold that he could never escape and still be a male… although after the last day of sexual torture, he wasn't so sure he'd ever be interested in sex again. Oh Dude! Had he just said he 'wasn't interested?' Was this how Chicks normally felt about sex? Talk about irony! Seriously! He was turning into a skirt! "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Atitudinator," Electronique mumbled… she was a little hard to understand given that she was going down so fast that it sounded like she was gargling… "The one they used before I went to Prison was the model I designed."

"Yeah… So Oooooooo," Ed groaned, starting to get back into it again. "uh…. Ohhhh… What?

"The one that used you used to 'UNDO' me was a standard Henchco design… mmmm…. Not the same…. Circuits… different… parts… of the… brain….."

"Oh GOD! The switches! You're saying that not all the switches were reset the same way?"

"Yesss! Oh YESSsSSs!" She was straddling him again now. "You're really not as stupid as you look, are you?"

"Um… no?"

"Goooood boy… now, just give Electronique what she wants and then we can finish this little device of yours. Unggghhh Yaaaaaa YESS! YESSS!"

And a few minutes later, once it was all over again… for the moment, at least...

"Yes, I think I might actually be starting to like you Ted. I might even forgive you for frying my brain like this."

"Ed."

"What?"

"My name's Ed. Motor Ed."

"No…. I like Ted better. You're Ted now."

"I…" Ed started to protest.

"Yeeeeessss?" Electronique drawled, sparks arcing off the finger that Ed had learned to dread more than anything else in his entire life.

"T… Ted's cool. Seriously."

"You ARE a good boy," Electronique giggled. "I'm so glad I haven't killed you. Yet."

#######

Senor Senior Sr. stared at the wall in front of him. He could have stared at the ocean, but then his mind would think about where those waves would eventually end up. And of the lagoon on the far side of the island that he'd never even given a second thought to.

The place where the mainland police were even now dredging the site.

Technically, they had no authority here, but he'd called them. What else could he do? After physically threatening half of his employees with bodily harm himself if they didn't confess what they knew… and then finding an answer so horrible that it had threatened to completely consume him.

Because his employees HAD confessed. Gladly. Desperately. Trying to assuage their consciences for hiding what had been going on for so long. The hideous nightmare that they had believed that HE had not only known of, but actually condoned!

Madre Dios! The tears would still be rolling down his face, but there was nothing left inside him. The grief for what he had allowed to happen was like an animal tearing at his soul, but even that was not as bad as the eyes. The eyes of the missing girls that his employees had identified from the huge books the police had brought. The eyes that had stared at HIM as, one by one, they were checked off, the officers shaking their heads sadly. He could see that how they had hoped that one day those girls would be returned to their own grieving parents, alive and well.

Now they would return in plastic bags. The parts that could even be found.

And who knew how many more were still out there? It could be hundreds... he didn't dare let himself think that it might be even more… and he knew that for the rest of his miserable life, he would see their eyes whenever he closed his own. Accusing him. Because of what he had done. What he had allowed to grow.

Evil.

It had been such a game. Attempting to outwit a clever foe like Kim Possible: one clue, one clever trap at a time. And he'd been so frustrated that Junior didn't understand the intellectual challenge! The joy of such a brilliant entertainment!

How had he never seen that Junior had discovered a level of Evil his father had never even imagined? A sickening need to service his own base desires, no matter what the cost to others? And now there would always be the question:

If Senor Senior Sr. had never begun his game of Evil, would Junior not have become its very personification? He would not... COULD NOT... believe that the child of his loins... the child of his late wife... the cherished infant upon whom they had rested their entire future... could have descended to such monstrous depths on his own.

Which meant that it was his fault.

It was all his fault.

And a weaker man would have folded under such weight… God knows, he nearly had. But Senior was a descendent of nobles. Though his father and his father before him had been but humble workers, the blood of kings and generals nevertheless flowed through his veins. And he would not let even this take him down.

He had a mission now. Three of them, in fact.

First - Make what restitution he could for the horrors that had already been done. All his wealth and power had been built with the goal of giving it to his son... a son who had now proved forever unworthy. So he would spend it all, in ways that would do the most good for the world. He could never completely atone, but if villains like Draken, Lucre and Shego could turn about their lives, than could a Senior do less? Unlike Drakken and Shego he had no great inventions or powers to offer the world, but if Lucre could turn his financial abilities over to the greater good, he could certainly do the same. Some of his money would, of course, go to the families whose lives he had so cruelly and negligently shattered, but there had to be other things he could do...

Second - Find Junior and stop him. Purge the evil that had claimed his son... or if that proved impossible, at least prevent him from ever harming another soul... even if it meant committing him forever to a prison or asylum. Senor Senior had money, his son would get the best of treatment, but he could never again be allowed to walk free.

And last but not least, Third - he had to save the young woman who might still be in Junior's clutches. The poor Rockwaller girl that he, himself, had suggested Junior start dating. He'd been... shocked was a word that had simply ceased to have meaning for him… after today, nothing could ever shock him again... but he had been appalled to learn that that the … no, BONNIE… had suffered a horrific accident at this very resort and hadn't been seen since. But in her case there was still some hope. Had she been on the bottom of the lagoon, they would have found her already and the crabs would have not cleared away so much as to make identification impossible. And what his employees HAD found had made him even more hopeful... all of her personal effects, including her passport, bundled up in a safebox underneath the floor of Junior's room. Why would he have kept those if he had not anticipated needing them again?

And finally, the Hotel's physician was strangely missing as well. Would he be among the bodies eventually found? Or had he fled due to complicity in something even more monstrous? The notes in the abomination that Junior had typed... his 'script'... had made frequent mention of a 'stunt double.' God forbid that wasn't the fate that awaited Miss Rockwaller. But he had no time to dwell on 'might be's.' This was a time for action!

And when faced with an insurmountable task of this magnitude, there was only one person who Senor Senior knew he could turn to. Someone who he knew would never laugh in his face, even though they had been enemies for years. And he HAD to turn to her, because to fight great evil required an even greater good.

So he must find Kim Possible. He WOULD find Kim Possible! And in the horrid bag that Junior had left behind, was all the negotiating material that Senior would need to bring her to his side.

And unlike any other person on the planet, Senor Senior Senior already KNEW exactly where to find her.

#####

With a low guttural growl of appreciation, Dash Demond carefully applied another layer of weather coating to "Delilah," his favorite sniper's rifle, reveling in the blue-black sheen the musky liquid brought to the lethal device. A custom-built monstrosity that could fire six different gauges of ammunition AND even a harpoon via a side mounted air canister, it had been his weapon of choice for years prior to forming Team Impossible, and once they had broken their ill-considered contract with Global Justice, he had retrieved it from the cache where he had hidden it after the tell-tale marks the unique rifling in the barrel left on the bullets had begun to become too well known to international authorities. It would have to go back into the ground again, after this mission, but for this assignment he wanted Delilah in his hands. He was going to be hunting the most dangerous game he had ever faced, and there were too many other variables in this job to add an unfamiliar weapon to the mix.

As his hand moved up and down the hard steel shaft, forcing the thick oil to fill every crevice in the metal with the special polishing cloth, his eyes rolled stealthily up to take in the attractive form of their employer, who was patiently honing the edge on her own preferred weapon. She had been a fine woman once, and even with that creepy eye, the missing fingers and the scars, Adrena Lynn was still eminently in the range that Dash considered 'do-able.'

Psycho as fucking hell, but definitely do-able.

Maybe after they'd consigned Possible to the big trophy room in the sky, he'd try hitting that. Right now, though, he might as well be sticking his johnson in a meat grinder… that was one SERIOUSLY angry woman. Not that he could blame her. She'd been a tasty treat for the hard cases in cell block H when they'd tossed her in and thrown away the key, but to give her credit, the extreme-sports star who'd been faking her own stunts turned out to have what it took to survive in the steel jungle, after all. They'd done a couple of dances around the training ring, just to see what she could do… there was no way Team Im… that is, the K Team was going to let someone who couldn't deal when it came down to asses or ammo, actually join the line of fire without vetting. And Lynn had done far better than he'd expected. Oh, he'd taken her, but it hadn't been easy, and what had impressed him most was that she hadn't got mad. She'd just asked him to teach her the moves that had taken her down. And he had.

Yeah, if she wasn't seriously crippled or maimed after tangling with Possible, he'd consider something beyond a contract labor basis. But since she was absolutely insistent on having her 'shot,' Dash put her odds of surviving with her remaining looks and appendages intact at well below 50%. That's why Delilah's first set of chambers were loaded with knock-out darts instead of the armor piercing rounds he'd have preferred. He'd been researching what the cheerleader had been up to over the last year and it impressed the crap out of him. Nobody even knew how many forms of combat she'd mastered now, and apparently she'd picked up staff, knife and gun skills as well. Oh, the K Team would take her down, but they'd have to do it before she killed Lynn, who was their only ticket to the final jackpot.

And since in order to take out Possible, they were probably going to have to take out the Green Bitch and Monkey Boy first, Possible was probably going to be more than mad enough to do just that. Dash just hoped that this "great trap" Lynn's contact had promised was coming was going to be everything he'd cracked it up to be. Dash didn't like having to wait for someone else to flush the quarry, he'd rather be out there with the beaters himself. And he sure as hell didn't like not knowing what the chosen kill-ground was going to be in advance.

"Dash! Dash!" Burn Burman burst into the room, earning a gun in the face for failing to knock, but the Killer Accountant was too excited to even notice! What the hell?

"You ain't gonna believe this! Possible just came out of the closet!"

"What?" Dash and Lynn ejaculated as one.

"She's GAY! Kim Possible is fucking gay! And you aren't going to believe who she's hooked up with! Shego! With fucking Shego!"

"I don't fucking believe it!" Dash exclaimed as Lynn simultaneously yelled "She's a dyke?"

"And you haven't even heard the biggest news!" Burn was gasping for air, he'd been talking so fast, but he swallowed like a whale going after Jonah and plunged forward. "There's already been an attempt! Aviarius and some monster named Gill!"

"And?" Lynn and Dash demanded as one.

"Possible took them apart! Both of them! By herself! The whole goddamn thing was videotaped and it's running on every channel!" By now Burman was red in the face and sweating profusely. "Jeezus, Dash! She took them both down at the same time and made it look EASY!"

Lynn and Dash looked at each other. Burman was always the weak link in their group… he was a number cruncher first and a bone cruncher second… but he was pro enough to know the difference between 'easy' and anything else.

"I still want my shot," Lynn insisted. "But screw the knockout bullets. Put a half dozen rounds in her and then I'll finish her off."

"Right," Dash nodded approvingly. Sounded like a plan. And a half dozen bullets might be enough. But he'd load the harpoon on the side, just to make sure.

######

"Christ did you see that?" One of the henchmen exclaimed! There were a dozen clustered around the portable sat-phone and video terminal in what had become Castle Senior's unofficial communications center. "She ran into his fucking blades!"

"Got winged too! Look!"

"Like it did a damn thing! Holy…."

As a group, the henchmen collectively groaned as whatever was on the screen took a tragic turn.

'_What the hell are they watching?'_ Faux-Kim puzzled as she perched pigeon-like outside the window. Apparently no one ever even thought to look for someone at an opening that was over a drop like this side of the castle. She'd slowly worked her way around to this point and had actually been trying to scoot past the window when she'd noticed the commotion inside.

"Who the hell would have believed that?"

"I would have! I was at Dementor's!"

"I'm talking about Kim Possible and Shego fucking! Goddamn!"

"But man, wouldn't you like to see a picture of that?"

"Hell, you damn near can! Check out those new uniforms they're wearing!"

"Gezus! You can damn near make out her lab…bla Look at that camel toe!"

Outside the window, Kim/Bonnie was in absolute shock. WHAT WAS THAT IMPOSTER DOING? Her reputation would be…

"_But you always suspected she was gay!"_ A voice whispered inside her head. What? WHAT?

"_All those guys and she never did ANY of them! She never even spread for the dork!" _Faux Kim grabbed her head as the voice… that horrifyingly familiar voice kept speaking. _"You saw her LOOKING at you in the SHOWER! You SAW the way she LOOKED at YOU!"_

'_No! I'm Kim Possible!' _She yelled at herself._ 'That makes no SENSE!' _

"_**You saw how she looked at you! AND YOU WANTED HER TOO!" **_

"NO!"She screamed and ran past the window, completely ignoring the drop as she desperately fought to push the images from her head. Herself! In the BONNIE body! MASTURBATING AND THINKING OF KIM POSSIBLE! **"NOOOOO!"**

"Hey, what the hell was that?" One of the henchmen demanded, turning for the first time but seeing only empty night outside. "An owl?"

"Probably a vulture," A second man volunteered. He'd done plenty of shifts in old castles and you ALWAYS heard weird crap. "I seen a couple of them hanging around…"

"Come on, rewind the damn thing! I wanna see it again!"

The henchmen went back to the video, completely unaware that, had they even so much as glanced outside, they'd have seen a girl with bright red hair and a terrified expression, huddled in a fetal shape only a few feet further along the ledge. But they wouldn't have known who she was, of course.

How could they?

She didn't even know who she was herself.

And as she realized that, she realized something else.

She had no idea who her friends were. If she had any at all.

If she'd ever even had one.

Alone and freezing, with the warmth of the castle only a few feet away, the girl who didn't know who she was broke down in tears on the walls of a castle named for blood and stone. And if the slightest movement could have sent her plummeting to her death at any moment, she gave not a sign of caring. How could death be worse than this?

Or… maybe…

Maybe she was already dead… and just didn't know it yet.

######

"Hold on, let me just get this straight, Mr. Senior," Ralph repeated, the biting cold from the midnight wind ripping through the thin fabric of his Henchco Parka. 'You want us to put those thermite bombs all along the edge of the glacier? The WHOLE way across?"

"It's SENOR Senior," Junior replied haughtily, looking every inch the king with his own fur-rimmed arctic survival gear. "But yes, those are my instructions."

"But…" Ralph looked back and forth from the arrogant young villain to the thin line of trees that held back the titanic slabs of ice that had already fallen… to the white capped monster that lay further up the slope, looking eerily like a skull in the harsh moonlight.

There had been a time when that glacier, the Domeniul Sângeroase de Gheaţă şi Depresie, had been among the greatest in all Europe. But while the runoff from the huge icefields still fed the great crater lake that the glacier itself had dug thousands of centuries earlier during the last major ice age… and while the runoff from that lake, in turn, still drove the massive hydroelectric dam that supplied power to half a nation… the Domeniul Sângeroase de Gheaţă şi Depresie was dying. It had been dying for hundreds… no, thousands of years. But over the last hundred that death had accelerated at an unnatural pace; though whether the primary cause was greenhouse gases, thermal backwash from the dam or the relentless foresting that had removed so much of the lush forests that had once sheltered and shaded its edges was something that the ecologists, geologists, industrialists and tree-huggers were all still pointing fingers at each other about. In the long run, it didn't matter. Within a few hundred years the glacier would have retreated so far that the lake would no longer be in view of its parent.

But right now, it was a very different issue. The great glacier still hung like a sword of Damocles above the lake, poised like an eternally frozen wave that periodically dropped huge chunks of ice into the lake. Chunks the size of a locomotive… sometimes even a freight train.. that would come sliding down the rocky slopes, impacting into the huge logjam of dead and dying trees that previous ice-slides had uprooted on their way down. There they would melt slowly, feeding the lake and watering the very trees that had stopped them.

But what Junior proposed to do was to speed that process a thousand-fold. He wanted the trees at the base burned, removing the one obstacle that kept huge chunks of ice from floating directly across the lake and impacting the dam… which, while it was made of concrete and steel, was still only the thinnest of barriers between dam-swollen waters and all of the towns and villages that lay below. And at the same time, Junior wanted thermite bombs placed along the base of the glacier itself, detonation of which would first form a great flood, but even more terrifying, would also create a huge undercut, undermining the entire front edge of the glacier.

And if that undercut should break off, a piece of ice the size of JFK International airport would come sliding down the mountain at ever increasing speeds, until it hit the lake, creating a huge tidal wave that would probably rupture the dam, sending hundreds of millions of gallons of ice cold water sluicing through the narrow valley that was home to tens of thousands of people.

The ones in the small town directly below would never even know what had happened. The ones further down would hear a sound like Satan's own freight train. But there would be no time to escape.

And that was BEFORE the giant piece of ice itself followed the same path. And if the tidal wave didn't shatter the dam, then that nightmare block of ice most assuredly would.

"So, um… " Ralph absolutely, positively HAD to make sure he understood all this. "You want us to put some kind of remote control device on these so the bombs can be turned off, right? When the authorities meet your demands? Pay the ransom?"

And then he felt all the blood in his body turn colder than the glacier itself as Junior simply turned and looked at him like he was some loathsome insect that had unexpectedly had the temerity to address a God of Creation.

"What does a Senior need money for? This is to attract Possible. An impossible task. That is the bait that will bring her to my trap. We will set the bombs, and we will detonate them."

"And then," Senior smiled savagely. "We will wait for HER."

And thousands of people would die, Ralph realized, their lives snuffed out in an instant, just in order to bait this insane trap. Unless Possible COULD do the impossible and somehow stop a mountain of ice with an express ticket to hell. And they'd already received their orders on what to do to Possible herself…

He looked at the thermite bombs. At Junior. And at Junior's elite guards, all armed with high-powered rifles… unlike the lowly henchmen like himself, who had been told to leave their weapons back at the castle.

"Yes, Mi… Senor Senior," Ralph shuddered. Junior would burn for all eternity for this. But Ralph and his fellow henchmen would be burning right alongside him.

And even knowing that… knowing he was taking another step towards his ultimate damnation… he STILL picked up the first bomb, carefully secured it on his back and began to haul it up the hill. What choice did he have?

It was his job.


	41. Chapter 41

_Author's Note: Back again, and here we are. The final major player is about to enter the hunt. The first dead body is about to hit the floor. Have you guessed who yet? Heh heh heh! Oh, I've been waiting SOOOO long for this! Not to mention the worst hidden pun I may have ever snuck into a manuscript! Evil, evil, evil! And now, Mister Bond… I mean, Dear Reader… the final apocalypse BEGINS! __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Bonnie Rockwaller, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Summer Gale, Jack Hench, Aviarius, Gill, Big Daddy Brotherson, Vince Wheeler, Nanny Nane and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 41

#####

"You have a problem," Camille growled as Junior came in through the door.

"Of course I have," Junior snarled back in a frighteningly feral and dangerous tone. "You are standing between the toilet and myself!"

Fortunately, Camille obviously decided whatever it was could wait and Junior enjoyed the wonderment of having a warm (relatively speaking) toilet seat on his well-exercised buttocks instead of the icy ring of the porta-potty he'd had the henchmen haul out to the demolition site for his personal use. And the smell! Such an improvement! Who knew that blue stuff would freeze solid like that? And shit on ice, contrary to all proper preconceptions, did, in fact, smell quite horribly. But now… ahhhh yes! Such bliss!

If Junior had half a functioning brain hemisphere, he'd have been wondering WHY he'd been spending so much time in the bathroom lately, but he'd been putting it down to a bad batch of Snickerdoodles. He'd have to tell Faux to check the expiration dates the next time he saw her… which, come to think of it, hadn't been for a while. Something… he kept thinking that there was something he was forgetting.

The reminder hit him in the face as he opened the door to meet the waiting Camille, urgently fidgeting and holding her nose because… well, as magnificent as Junior knew himself to be, his shit DID stink and he'd been quite prolific in its production.

"Your girlfriend is gone," Camille squeaked around her firmly clasped nostrils. "A hench went to take her her dinner and she wasn't in her room."

"Oh, that's no problem," Junior started to blow it off. "She's probably just…"

And that's when it hit him. The Attitudinator! He had been giving her regular treatments, initially twice a day but he'd slacked off and dropped to one and now…

When HAD he last treated her? The girl's importance in Junior's mind had shrunk to minimal after his initial plan of luring Possible out with staged robberies had fizzled, and once his own performance issues had become embarrassing he'd seen even less of her…

Damnation! She still could prove useful, especially for re-takes once Possible was dead, but the doctor had told him that he couldn't expect her real memory to remain submerged forever. Now he'd have to remember where he had packed the attitudinator and give her some extra-special treatment.

In fact, maybe it was time to give her a preview of what her REAL fate was going to be. With dawn swiftly approaching, his cinematographer had advised him to wait until just as the sun was setting this evening to detonate the first round of explosives, the ones that would destroy the barrier trees. That way, by the time Possible showed up, the sky would be completely black to make the demolition of the glacier… lit first by the burning trees and then by the glow of the thermite charges… far more cinematic. However, it also meant just that much more time until he could finally feel that soft white skin under his hands. He imagined that Possible would show bruises very easily.

But until then, he'd have to occupy his time somehow. Bonnie would do nicely.

"Well, find her." He ordered Camille imperiously. There had been a time when her status had been as great as his, but HER family had disowned her. Now she was little better than a common whore, selling her freak abilities to whoever had the cash. The way Junior saw it, that made her no better than the Henchmen whose lives he was about to throw away in order to take down Possible's protectors.

"And when you find her," he added, missing the fury in Camille's eyes as he strode away, "Bring her to my room."

One last thought did strike him, though.

"Oh, you may use, say… ten of my men to help you. And tell them that, as long as she is still breathing, I'm not concerned about other aspects of her physical condition."

#####

At any other time, in any other place, Sam would be asking "what in the bleep is going on here?"

But not now. Not this time. Because somehow, inexplicably, things were actually going RIGHT at the moment and he sure as heck wasn't going to risk jinxing it.

Okay, maybe RIGHT wasn't the correct word for it, but it was going smoothly. Shockingly so.

No one knew quite what past links the old lady who'd moved into the command center shared with their nominal commander, but she'd slapped Gemini silly and… more important… actually seemed to have instilled some kind of common sense into him. Or maybe it was just the fear of God in the form of that lethal umbrella she carried. The damn thing was so crooked and bent it made its owner's gnarled posture look straight, and it must have been used like a sword in battle since sometime before the Civil War, but effective it most certainly was. There hadn't been a single henchman shot, strangled or dropped down a tube since the woman called Nanny Nane had strode in and taken charge, but he'd never seen his fellow Henchmen looking smarter or performing more like a team. It would help if they knew WHAT they were drilling for, but all ops plans were restricted to Senior Henches with a NSNTK (Nane Says Need To Know) clearance. But they all knew what the buzz was.

Possible.

After that freak-show attack two days ago and the even weirder press conference yesterday, there was no longer any doubt that the long rumored contract was not only real, but that the bounty had been pushed into the realm where serious contenders were looking at it. And every man here knew that Gemini would probably have been going after the redhead anyway, just to spite his own sister by taking out her fair-haired girl.

Personally, Sam was feeling horrifyingly conflicted. Possible's gay-bomb announcement had hit too close to home… Sam's own son was… well, Sam was picking up that vibe and figured the kid was waiting to get up the courage to tell him and Cherise. It wasn't the path Sam would have picked for his son given the choice, the thing about kids was that you got what you got and loved them anyway. So, while he'd never seen Possible as anything but an unstoppable force of nature before, suddenly she had a very human face. Hell, she was barely two years older than Sam, Jr… she couldn't even DRINK, which Sam had thought was a prerequisite to getting up the nerve to have sex at that age, and yet here she was hooked up with SHEGO.

And that was another thing that bothered him. He KNEW Shego. Prior to Drakken's pardon, Sam had been a regular in the blue guy's cadre, and one of the reasons he'd always jumped for the job was that he knew Shego would always be there to take the toughest customers on. She'd been a strange bird, that was for sure, but she'd also struck him as surprisingly decent for someone who claimed to be evil. She'd given Doc all kinds of backtalk, but she'd done even the crappiest jobs when they needed to be done, and when the fighting was over, she'd been the one pulling the Henchmen to their feet, making sure their insurance claims got paid. He couldn't even think of another supervillain who'd ever even known his name, but Shego had. She'd known all the men's names, and it was pretty obvious now that it wasn't because she was scoping them out as potential dates.

It DID kinda explain the way she and Possible had always made a bee-line for each other though.

Man, if he survived this assignment, there was a whole new category of jokes waiting to be created. If Possible survived this assignment, that is… which, now that he thought about it, probably also meant if SHEGO survived this assignment. Gay or straight, you didn't have to be a genius to see how hard those two had it for each other. And having fought Possible and lost sixty eight times, and fought alongside Shego at least that many, the thought of having to take them both on together… let alone the idea of possibly having to kill someone he'd considered… well, not a friend, exactly, but at least a comrade in arms…

Where did you draw the line?

Unbidden, Shego's definition of Evil ran back through his mind. Not just doing something that you know is wrong, but…

Okay, scratch that whole idea about things going smoothly. He just hadn't been looking far enough down the road to see the REAL roadbumps.

#####

"Alright Ms. Gale," the tallest of Summer's armed escorts warned her. "Simpson and Thomas are going to go up first and make sure your apartment is clear. When I give the all clear, I want you to come up quickly and head directly to the safe."

The tall, dark skinned man… Mendoza… looked at her very carefully. "You're positive there's no other way to get into it without your thumbprint?"

"No. I mean no, there isn't," Summer replied with a bit of irritation. She'd told Dr. Director everything she knew… then had been pumped by another dozen people as well, as if they didn't trust what she was telling them. Well it was. She'd done her time in prison, she had her job on the evening news back, now all she wanted was to go to bed and forget about all this whole horrible experience!

But no, there was this one last loose end to tie up. The phone. She should have ditched it… or at least put it in a safety deposit box. But no, no, she couldn't do that. She'd had some vague idea that it might be important, so she'd locked it up in the ultra-secure safe that was set inside the safe-room of her apartment. Yes, she had a safe room. After spending every night for a year wondering who was going to slide into her bed to rape her, the one thing she'd absolutely required on getting out was a place where she had an ultimate retreat. And, fortunately, one of the girls she'd met inside had a boyfriend who was also doing time. He'd been selling a certain no longer legally available substance and had worried about 'unexpected visitors' to the extent that he'd built an virtually impregnable vault in the middle of his first floor walkup. That it had had a state of the art safe inside it had just been a fortunate coincidence.

If Dr. Director wanted the phone, she could have it. As long as Summer never had to face Kim Possible again. Let alone that flame-throwing girlfriend of hers.

If Mendoza saw any of these thoughts running behind her face, he ignored it. He simply turned to the two shorter, heavier men, Thomas and Simpson, and said "Better check the place first."

#####

The mathematically fixated Supervillain known as the Mathter lay cloaked in the darkness, as invisible as an imaginary number, waiting patiently, as he had all day and night, to resolve the vicious little subtraction problem currently vexing him once and for all. He couldn't believe that this… this… _weathergirl…_ this mere conveyer of figures… had actually split him out of a chance at the biggest contract he'd ever had a chance at! The Mathter did NOT care for being on the wrong side of a division, for being fractionalized! In fact, it rather made his already foul and nasty personality become multiple times worse.

Now, however, this mere reciter of numbers would learn what it meant to anger a true master of the mathematics of death and destruction, of the darkest of numerologies! Of course, it would be the last lesson she would be capable of comprehending, with her final experience being the crowning realization of what it meant to become a negative number herself.

The door to Gale's apartment open and a single masculine head glanced quickly, cautiously inside. The Mathter tensed, but he couldn't give himself away just yet… he had to get the phone. That was what his contact had said. Get the phone and he'd be set up with another partner… probably someone else who'd been stood up at the additions tables, but that would make them more inclined to be less fussy.

The Global Justice agent's head popped in the door again, followed by the whole body as he rolled into the room just like in a bad cop show. After aiming his gun around several times and peering into the darkness, he seemed to be satisfied that the room was empty… not realizing that the Mathter was, in fact, only a dozen feet away, using his Null Number Field to generate a cloak of near-invisibility.

"It's clear Ms. Gale," the agent spoke loudly, in the direction of the door, and from outside the Mathter heard another set of footsteps coming up the stairs. Perfect! Everything was adding up exactly right!

Looking nervous, Gale quickly entered the apartment and walked directly to the large 'safe room,' quickly stepping inside and emerging again less than 30 seconds later holding a silver phone that was an identical twin to the one in the e-mail the Mathter had received. That was the last addition he'd been waiting for!

Time to zero out Ms. Summer Gale.

The ex-weather person's voice erupted into a high-pitched scream as she fell back, the razor-edged numeral 4 the Mathter had hurled stuck in her chest, burying itself to the tines amid a huge explosion of arterial blood spraying in every possible direction!

"GALE!" The agent yelled, firing his weapon in the direction from which the weapon had come! But his aim was wild, being unable to hit what he couldn't see! The beam went high, several feet over the Mathter's shoulder, trickling an odd pixie-dust effect behind it. What kind of ray was that?

If he'd had more time, the Mathter would have thrown his second Shi-Star at the agent… shi being the Japanese word for both four and death… but his primary job was to eliminate Gale, then get out of there with that phone. Therefore he targeted Gale again, the second 4 hitting perpendicular to his first shot! He was no doctor, but as the woman's head was nearly completely severed, it would appear that the Mathter's role in this equation was finished!

Waving his hand, he set off the pre-prepared decimal-ating charges he'd set around the base of the nearest window and the entire thing disappeared in a gout of flame and fire. And then he was flying from the room, half astride his rocket-powered calcu-cycle, dialing the number he'd been e-mailed even as the other agents finally made it to the window and began shooting at his swiftly receding back.

The phone on the other end rang once, then immediately picked up.

"Yes?" the strangely familiar voice spoke quickly. "Status? Gale? Phone?"

"I have the phone, obviously. She's dead."

"Excellent!" the voice of his contact replied warmly. "Then it's time to subtract all the other troublesome factors as well."

The Mathter had barely had enough time to process that statement when the phone he was holding detonated. Fortunately, he'd been climbing rapidly as he called, so while the expanding fireball was visible from up to thirty miles away, the local damage was only a few blocks lightly littered with odd chunks of burning calcu-cycle and Mathter.

#####

At the other end of the line, Brotherson smiled as he set the white phone back down on the table in front of him. He'd already detonated Aviarius' phone, though from what he could tell it had been well hidden in a part outside Middleton. Two silverphones and two supervillains removed from the game. Two more in custody, though only Aviarius was a potential threat, and a minimal one at that. The odds, Brotherson reflected, were once more in his favor, and the biggest and most dangerous player in the entire game had yet to enter the picture.

#####

"Goddamn it!" 'Simpson' swore, his body rippling as if seen through warped glass and became Kim Possible as she stared out the remains of the window at the glowing fireball. Kim had seen death before… in the aftermath of disasters… she'd even seen someone actually die right in front of her, but never so brutally, as the result of such a callous decision. She'd just been able to make out the Mathter activating the phone, but there had been no mistaking where that explosion had originated. She'd had the foresight to assume that their ultimate opponent would want to eliminate Gale as a potential loose end, but she hadn't expected him to prune yet another branch up the tree.

And because of that, a man was dead. A villain and one who had just performed what he thought was an act of murder, but still a human life…

"What's wrong? Did he lose the trackers?" Gale's dead body groaned, rippling into Shego. Like Kim, she wore one of the heavily padded suits used by bomb disposal teams over her standard body armor and a full-head helmet that was supposed to be able to survive being shot with a Vulcan cannon. Unlike Kim, she was drenched in artificial blood, courtesy of the multiple condoms stretched across both their suits, all filled with a mixture of karo syrup, emulsifiers and food dyes that perfectly mimicked the color of real hemoglobin. When torn by the Shi-star, those condoms had provided a believable splatter on the floor, walls and ceiling, as well as a concealing haze of real liquid to obscure any mismatches that might while Wade's computers struggled to supply most of the rest of 'Gale's' death throws, including a neat bit where Shego had flipped head to foot and crawled away under a projection of the floor, on top of which her projected body appeared to remain unmoved. That trick had allowed the Mathter's second Shi-star to go through sailing through the area without decapitating the green woman's head yet seeming to remove Gale's. It got confusing talking about it, but they'd rehearsed the actions themselves often enough that they didn't have to talk or even think about how complex they were, they simply had to repeat them by pure muscle memory. They'd also practiced a full set of deaths for Kim as Simpson, and for Shego's second alter-ego, Thomas, which she'd been until just before she'd entered the apartment.

The choice of who took which role had boiled down to three things: the logic that Gale would be the primary target, that when they were both wearing identical protective gear, Shego with her healing ability was still going to be a lot harder to kill or permanently injure than Kim, and, finally, the fact that Shego could use her plasma to simply burn her way into the safe, while Kim would need a bit longer to crack into it with her burglar's kit. Fortunately, all their intelligence on the Mathter's had indicated that he was.. had been… a creature of habit who seldom changed from a winning formula, and they'd correctly anticipated that, against a non-super powered foe, he would opt for his favored weapons, the Shi-Stars and the less lethal Throwing Kus (Ku being Japanese for both Nine and Suffering.)

What they HADN'T anticipated was that whoever was behind this would already be poised to eliminate the Mathter from the game. That made the tracking dust Kim had been careful to shoot over his shoulder (Kimunicator scans having already revealed his location during her first quick glimpse as Simpson into the room) essentially worthless… except in recovering the man's fractal remains.

Which didn't change the fact that, if Kim and Shego hadn't so completely convinced the Mathter and his masters that he'd succeeded, he'd probably still be alive right now. And that knowledge was like a clinching fist in Kim's gut. She'd never been in a situation where she'd been so sure that someone's death was directly the result of her own planning.

"Hey, Princess? Are you okay?" Shego was asking. She'd already struggled out of her heavy suit and was approaching Kim. "Did he…?"

Shego stopped as she, too, saw the black cloud of smoke that was all that was left to mark the passing of the Mathter. "oh."

"Yeah." Kim was already putting her game-face back on, and just in time as Summer Gale burst into the room pursued by Jose Mendoza.

######

Gale stood in the middle of her apartment in shock. It was impossible to look at the huge splatter of fake blood on the floor and NOT realize that it was supposedly her that had just been killed. Neither Dr. Director or her guards, two of whom she now knew had actually been Possible and the blood-drenched Shego in some kind of electronic disguise, had warned her about any of this… yet clearly they'd been prepared for a lethal attack and the two women she'd been scared to death of a few minutes ago had obviously just risked their own lives to save her.

And if they hadn't… had she simply come directly home rather than talking to Dr. Director… had she decided not to go the press briefing at all… that crimson smear on the floor WOULD have been her.

It had all happened so fast. 'Simpson,' who had to have been Possible, had gone up the stairs with surprising speed and stood directly outside the door as Thomas started up. That's when the weirdness happened. Thomas' whole body seemed to shimmer and suddenly Summer was looking at her own ass… that is to say, Thomas had somehow turned into a near photographic double of herself!

And then simultaneously Summer had felt HERSELF seem to ripple. She couldn't see it, but she'd become an identical copy of someone else… a certain Helen Dassak, to be precise, not that Gale would ever know or need to know that information.

"You're disguised!" Mendoza hissed to her, as he threw her to the floor, covering her with his own body! "Just in case they see you!"

Meanwhile Simpson had dodged into the room and then Thomas/Summer/Shego was going in and she'd heard the sounds of a fight. She hadn't SEEN anything because her eyes were clinched too tight and the close proximity of Mendoza was causing her trauma stressed mind and body to freak past the limits she could handle. It was only a few minutes later, when the fighting upstairs was obviously done, that she'd finally opened them, then ran up the stairs in a blind panic.

And the worst part was that she knew WHY they hadn't warned her. Because they still hadn't been 100% sure she wasn't intentionally leading them into a trap. And she couldn't blame them for that at all, because there was nothing in her past to indicate that she was a person worth trusting at all.

But even knowing that, they'd still risked their lives to save hers.

As she sat there, slowly comprehending the differences in life choices that had brought her to where she was, and Kim Possible and Shego to where they were, she felt unexpected ashamed. Ashamed of where the little girl who'd once wanted to be a foreign correspondent, a REAL reporter, had somehow ended up.

Summer Gale had just spent a year in prison, and all that it had taught her was that prison was a horrible place that she didn't want to go back to. Staring at the spot where 'she' had just 'died,' on the other hand…

It was just too much. Too much.

Bursting into tears, Summer threw herself towards the already embracing Shego and Kim, who found themselves awkwardly holding her as the former villain purged her soul with the time proven solvent of tears.

"I hope you understand," Kim spoke softly, a tear running from her own eye, "That it's best for you to stay dead for a while."

#####

Hench looked up at Raymond with agonized eyes. He couldn't believe he'd made such a stupid mistake.

Float. The amount of time it took for money from one account to process into another.

He'd completely drained the cash reserves of Henchco arranging the first payment to the Payout Agent… had gone past that, in fact, and dipped into the Medical and Retirement accounts that were considered Holy Ground. And then, when the Plutonium Card went through, he hadn't even thought about what accounts served as the primary backups for that card. Just checked to see that the funds were there. But they were the exact same ones, and while one of the benefits of the 12 hour limit on the Plutonium card was that there would be no record, to achieve that it had to actually make the cash transfer UNLESS you checked the credit option, in which case it acted like a regular credit card, for which a record WAS retained.

He'd paid out of the same accounts twice. And when the money hadn't been in the primary accounts, the 'reserve' accounts had been tapped instead. Operating funds. Accounts Payable. And most problematic of all, Payroll.

And unless he and Raymond could find a solution, within the next four days, every single Henchman's paycheck was going to bounce. Which meant a LOT of angry customers that he'd have to face. Angry SuperVillain customers. Not to mention a lot of angry Henchmen. And that wasn't even the worst of it. Unless they could put that money BACK into the accounts, within the next 30 days, Henchco would be in even worse trouble. It would be bankrupt and its assests would be seized by its largest major creditor.

The Friendly, Friendly Bank and Trust.

Which was also the firm that had provided him with the Plutonium Card in the first place.

And the identity of the payout agent was none other than Vince "Vinnie" Wheeler… who was ALSO his banker. AND the senior loans officer of the FFB&T.

The same son of a bitch who had almost made away with the Senior fortune. Who had cleverly maneuvered Hench into a situation where every single financial asset of the company was now within FFB&T's pincer-like claws.

In the back of his head, Hench could hear Brotherson's maniacal laughter. The son of a bitch had known, somehow. But that's what Brotherson's skill was. Knowing. Hench had seen Wheeler as a mere appendage of a larger organism, a mere pinky finger on one of the hands of a multi-armed monster. But Brotherson, the brain, had turned that pinky into a deadly weapon.

And he and Wheeler together had just backed Hench into a corner with no avenue of escape. Everything he'd ever built and stolen was about to be taken from him unless…

Unless…

YES! There WAS a way out! There WAS!

It would mean removing the veil of anonymity that had cloaked Hench for so long. It would mean letting the world know what he really was. And THAT had been Brotherson's goal all along! Because with Hench exposed, Brotherson would be in the clear… or at least, reduced to a lesser villain in the overall scheme.

But if Hench moved now, he could at least save his company. He'd be permanently villainized, but he feared having to deal with Global Justice and the other international agencies far less than hundreds of supervillains whose actions weren't restricted by laws and regulations.

There was no other choice. And besides, there'd be a huge level of personal satisfaction as well.

"Raymond," He spoke slowly but with more certainty than he'd felt in days. "Do me a favor and set up a meeting of EVERY department head. We'll begin in 30 minutes."

He grinned as he though of how simple it really was. FFB&T would HAVE to give his money back to him if he, himself, claimed the bounty on Possible's head.

And for the next four days, that would be the ONLY job EVERY Henchman not already assigned in the field would be tasked with.


	42. Chapter 42

_Author's Note: For those who didn't catch the hidden pun I referred to last time, it's a 'production' releated joke and it's buried in this line "_But Brotherson, the brain, had turned that pinky into a deadly weapon." _Big Daddy Brotherson is voiced in the original series by the magnificent Maurice LaMarche, who among thousands of other voices including Tuxedo Sam the Froot Loops bird and the animated Egon Spengler, is also the voice of the Brain in Pinky & the Brain. Pinky, on the other hand, is voiced by the equally magnificent Rob Paulsen, who also voiced the nefarious Vinnie Wheeler. I cackled to myself for hours over that fortuitous coincidence… then again, I cackle to myself for hours anyway… but Vinnie's presence has been lurking in the background for a while now. I like to think it ironic that, for all the claims to evil and power the other villains may pretend to, the one who ultimately pulls all the strings is the one who controls the money they consider to be theirs. But then again, what person in their right mind would trust a bank that caters to villains? Of course, you may have noticed that there's a lot of being hoisted by one's own petard going on. Once again, thanks for all the reviews and comments. Oh, and expect the next couple of chapters to run a LITTLE longer… so many threads to tie up as we march to the finish! __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Bonnie Rockwaller, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Summer Gale, Jack Hench, Aviarius, Gill, Big Daddy Brotherson, Vince Wheeler, Nanny Nane and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 42

#####

Bo-Kim's entire body was shivering uncontrollably as she hid in the bottom of the closet. Not from the freezing cold, although the lack of feeling in her fingers and ears were probably indicators of severe frostbite, but from the realization of how badly she'd been played. Whoever… or whatever… she was, and whoever was currently "Kim Possible," she was now sure of at least one thing:

Junior hadn't ever been her friend.

He'd used her, in every way possible, and even as he'd been screwing her body, he'd been raping her mind, planting ideas that couldn't possibly be right and somehow managing to make her believe them.

She'd waited until the henchmen in the room had left, then crept inside and watched the same broadcast they had as it repeated… it had fortunately been saved on the computer's DVR... and she'd been able to watch from the bottom of the closet, just in case anyone returned. And the video had been more than just illuminating. As she watched the girl who claimed to be Kim Possible… probably WAS Kim Possible… fighting those other villains, Bon-Kim saw everything that she still found lacking in herself physically. And the lack of fear the girl had shown, despite the huge bounty on the her… or maybe Bonnie-Kim's… head, during that press conference resonated as real. Not just real courage, but real in how THAT was Kim Possible would behave. And then the ability to admit who and what she was to a potentially hostile audience, simply because she thought it might help others. THAT was Kim Possible too.

And most of all, during the video of the fight, she'd seen others she'd recognized. Tara… who Bonnie-Kim instinctively knew was one of her best friends… and Monique. She'd seen the way the other Kim had fought desperately to protect them, the same way she would have. If she'd been able to. Which she now knew she wouldn't have.

Because she wasn't Kim Possible. She'd never be Kim Possible.

But oh, dear God, right now she wished she was Kim Possible.

Because, in this same situation, Kim Possible wouldn't have been afraid. Kim Possible would have already have had a plan and be causing as much mayhem as she could. Not hiding like a rat at the bottom of a hole. The real Kim Possible wouldn't have been almost certain she was going to die, no matter what she did.

But if Bonnie… and yes, she MUST be Bonnie… had learned one thing from being Kim Possible, it was that 'almost' wasn't a sure thing. If you fought hard enough and persevered, you could win over the most overwhelming odds.

Anything was possible for a Possible.

But was anything possible for a Rockwaller?

There was only one way to find out.

Creeping stealthily from the closet back to the information station, she brought up the Henchcom browser.

And found that it was locked out. Damn! She tried several other variations but nothing worked. Internet Explorer, Firefox, nothing seemed to be able to get outside without a passcode.

Hmm. What about e-mail?

Again, it needed an access code.

She'd have to find a computer where she KNEW the access code. And there was only one that she could be sure of.

Junior's.

Four floors up.

On the other side of the castle.

And yet, her only other options seemed to be just sitting here until someone finally looked in the closet and found her, or attempting to somehow smuggle herself out through the throngs of henchmen milling the grounds. She didn't know how smart those henchmen were, but she had an excellent grasp of Junior's general intelligence.

That made the decision easier.

Grabbing several jackets and an extra pair of snow pants that had been hanging in her face for the last twenty minutes, she quickly layered herself up as heavily as she could. Then, taking a deep breath, she stepped back out on the ledge outside the window and began the slow, dangerous journey towards her enemy's lair.

######

"Um… Doctor Director? I think something's going on at Hencho," Agent Dassak reported.

Betty looked up from the bed to see the naked woman sitting at her bedroom desk, pursing her lips as she ran through figures on her portable computer. Of course, Helen WAS still technically at work, even if she'd be sequestered away in Dr. Director's personal apartment for the next few days while her form was being used elsewhere. All of donors of the holo-shells they'd hastily created were in hiding of course, as the chance of the same body popping up in two different places as the same time could be catastrophic to the success of the current operation. None of the others were being put up personally by the head of Global Justice, mind you, but it really was all quite above the board. Mostly. And it was to Dassak's credit that she wasn't letting her duties slide.

Still, her tone seemed AWFULLY formal considering what they'd been up to for the last hour.

Or down to, depending upon the position, Betty added mentally with a sly grin.

Frankly, Betty had never anticipated what an unintentionally powerful pickup line "I'd like to use your body for a few days" could turn out to be. Of course, she had MEANT as a scanned photo alias for Possible and Shego to use… really, she HAD… but Helen… who had obviously been reading between the same lines at their 'lunch meeting' the other day… chose to take it in an entirely different direction.

"Is that for personal or professional use?" She'd blushed shyly, with such a casual touch of flirt in her half-lidded eyes that it had sent Betty's hormones skyrocketing. Okay, okay, so maybe it hadn't been exactly professional to skip past the intervening layers of organizational management to approach the inventory expert directly… and the fact that Helen had been the ONLY non-field agent she'd asked to 'volunteer' for the digitizing process that did, yes, involve a full body scan while stripped down to one's tightie-whities or… drool… less… had probably been a little more irregular. But…

But, well, damn it. Okay, Betty admitted that she'd had ulterior motives. Fortunately, it seemed that those motives had not been unappreciated. In fact, they had been rather fully reciprocated.

"What do you mean?" Betty asked carefully, making every attempt to appear equally as professional as Dassak as she crawled out from between the blankets they'd been in the process of making so delightfully warm to peer over Helen's shoulder. Totally professional, if you skipped the fact that they were both QUITE out of uniform.

You could TELL it was professional, in fact, by the very fact that Betty WAS actually listening to Helen very carefully. Because as incredible in the sack as the woman had turned out to be, she had an incredibly inventive but twisted mind that could somehow pull whole stories out of jumbled sheets of inventory lists. And if she thought she saw something going on, only a fool wouldn't pay close attention.

"They've just made a massive change in their advance supply orders from SmartyMart," Helen frowned. "In fact, they've put holds on just about everything that I can tie into... it's all been canceled or delayed for the month… Food. Stationary. Toilet paper. All beginning just a few hours ago… they're even refusing deliveries that were already in transit."

"Analysis?"

"Well, my guess… is that either they're expecting massive layoffs… or they've got a contract so big that there won't be anyone left at Henchco itself to use those supplies."

"Or possibly both," Betty agreed. "It looks like getting you hacked in to their SmartyCharge account is already paying off. Unfortunately, that means some of our plans may have to be altered. Do you mind if…?"

"You use my body again?" Helen sighed with mock exasperation. "Well, if you must, you must."

######

Sue Donem looked around the Henchco cafeteria and knew that something was up. She was just a lunchlady… a cafeteria worker… but you didn't have to be a semi-retired secret agent to figure out that the mystery meat had hit the fan somewhere. Of course, Sue WAS a semi-retired secret agent, though that past had been covered up as effectively as her real name when she'd gone into semi-retirement. The 'semi-' part was what had always been the big sticking point. Unlike her old friend Nana Possible, Sue couldn't contact her real family. Nor could she speak to her old friends in the business except on special occasions. In fact, just about the only thing she could do was work this low-paying Henchco job making a pathetic salary serving sub-standard food to the desperate men who'd actually sunk to the level of henching. Of course there WAS that large bank account that was building under her real name, and soon… within a year she hoped… she'd be able to quit this job and her REAL job of making a weekly report on the inner workings of Henchco.

The thing was, she was three days away from making her drop this week. But this… this was something that seemed too big to wait. The place was literally crawling with Henchmen, many of whom had been on inactive status for years. Old men who had last worked with The Night Heron, injured men walking with hobbled gaits, even a few who had been pulled in from marketing and the art department. For some reason Hench was pulling in every single body that he could, able or not. That translated into something major.

As she watched a Henchmen still sporting head bandages from the recent Dementor debacle wobble past, Sue made up her mind. She was going to have to take the chance of blowing her cover by using her direct contact line.

She was sick of slopping gravy anyway.

######

Brotherson stared at his confidential reports with satisfaction. Something was going on at Henchco, alright. Good. He'd wondered how long it would be before Hench made a stupid mistake and the man hadn't disappointed him with his bullheadedness. Now the question was how long Brotherson should wait before making the information available… To a certain extent, the answer SHOULD be as soon as Henchco makes an obvious move, one that would land Hench in so much hot water that he'd have to pull out.

On the other hand, information was what Brotherson sold. Something this juicy SHOULD be expensive, if for no other reason than it would cast suspicion on him if he wasn't greedy in trying to sell it.

And, of course, there was also that third factor to consider. His personal side deal with Vinnie Wheeler. He trusted the man as much as a cobra would a mongoose, but the prize to be earned should Hench fall completely would be worth all the trouble. Oh yes indeed. He wouldn't be quite as rich as a Senior, but very close. And with that kind of capital at his command…

Well, setting up something like this disaster/trap for Possible would have been child's play. As it was, he'd stretched his own resources incredibly thin. But everything was almost in line. He just had to find someone fool enough to actually plant the explosives. It SEEMED as though his plan was perfect.

And yet, the recent screw-ups with Possible had him rethinking everything. There was something that was just not right. She and Shego had disappeared as soon as they reached São Paulo, and while his eyes and ears in the Portuguese-speaking world weren't as strong as they could have been, he should have had SOME kind of report on what they were up to. But it was as if they had vanished into thin air.

And there was something about the videos as well. He'd watched them all a dozen times, but there was something that kept striking him as wrong about them… but what was it?

He really should take a break and get some sleep, he thought. But things were getting too close to the finish. Just a few more hours and his trap would be ready to launch. Then, and only then, would he allow himself to sleep.

Instead, he reached for another caffeine tablet and cued up the video of Possible at the airport again.

######

The morgue attendants wheeled the dead bodies down the halls Middleton Hospital, studiously avoiding the subjects in their care with unfocused looks and expressions with all the emotional sensitivity of toll-booth attendants as they headed for their final destination in the basement of the vast medical complex. Neither man was so emotionally dead outside of work, but there was something about moving the wreckage of human beings… the empty husks that had once held human souls, hopes and ambitions, now reduced to slabs of quickly spoiling meat… that sucked the very essence out of a person. It was the type of job that few remained in long, nor did these two tarry long after rolling the bodies into the central room that served for the combined purposes of receiving, storage and autopsies. At this late an hour, the attendants would normally have filed the bodies into one of the dozens of refrigerated cabinets lining the far wall, but they'd been told that these were rush jobs, so high priority that an off duty staffer had been called in rather than wait 'til morning.

The woman was already waiting, in fact, along with an assistant neither attendant recognized, but her face was a familiar one and the attendants were glad to simply leave their burdens at the spot she pointed to and depart, relieved of their ghoulish duties until the next inevitable fatality. Had they waited just a second longer however, they would have been stunned to see what happened next. No sooner had they departed, than the two women gave each other a significant look, then each walked to one of the bodies and unzipped the body bags.

The temporary coroner had barely pulled her zipper down a third of the way when two arms came up out of the back and the hideous dead body inside grabbed her around the neck in a daughterly hug.

"Hi Mom!" The not-dead body purred in the distinctive voice of Kim Possible. Meanwhile, the assistant's bag was yielding the mutilated body of Summer Gale, which suddenly twitched in a most ghastly fashion.

"Gah!" Shego's voice came from the zombie's mouth. "I think they gave me a USED bag."

"I think you're getting a taste of your own morning breath," Kim Possible commented wryly, her covering disguise of a dead Simpson completely fading as she began disentangling herself from her own body bag, "So how are dad and the tweebs?"

"They're fine," Anne Possible sighed. "You know dear, it's really not every mother's idea of fun to come pick up their daughter at the morgue. Can we please not make a habit out of this?"

"Sorry," Kim apologized softly, reluctantly letting go of her mother as she leaned over the edge of the morgue cart and stepped lightly to the floor. "But we sent Gale back to Global Justice disguised as Thomas, and we needed a body to send here so you could make out a death certificate…"

"So she figured we'd be better off not going back to GJ or using the tubes, given that she thinks they're being watched," Shego finished. "On the other hand," She added, looking at the 'assistant,' "This is the second time today I've seen Helen Dassak and I don't think this is the real one either."

"Damn," Dr. Director swore, her own disguise fading. "What gave me away?"

"First, you didn't get grossed out by my 'dead Gale' act," Shego began, "And it's a goodie. Second, she's not a field agent, so why would she be here? But mostly because you didn't even blink, and that caused me to notice that one of your eyes wasn't tracking."

"So nothing too obvious to someone who didn't already know what to be looking for," Betty's look of dismay dimmed slightly. "Which is good, since I took a tube to the GJ Garage near your family's safe house. And you're right about all the tubes being watched, Kim. Too many people know about too many exits for the current system. Once this is over we're going to have to engage in a massive new boring campaign."

"Actually, it might be more practical to leave the tunnels you have in place and just dig new secondary exits," Kim mused. "Leave them there and only use the secure ones when you really need to be sneaky. There's something to be said for letting the enemy think they know what you're doing, after all. If I'd known for sure which tubes were being watched, I could have integrated that into Shell Game."

"Which is already complex enough, thank you," Shego retorted.

"Layers on layers of backups is not complex," Kim argued. "That's why we have fallbacks now that the Mathter is…"

"Letting someone kill you to find out who's behind this is not what I call a fallback, Princess."

"Do you have a better plan?"

"Actually,' Betty interrupted. "That's partially why I'm here. Our moles are starting to see a LOT of activity in the supervillain community. Specifically, two big Henchco orders that just went out: Gemini and Senor Senior Junior."

"Gemini?" Kim's eyebrows narrowed. "I thought you had him locked up?"

"Turned out to be a clone, damnit. Sheldon's been pulling that trick ever since seeing Diamonds Are Forever."

"And Junior?" Shego puzzled. "Doesn't seem to be the kind of thing the Seniors would be into. It's not like a half-billion is anything to them."

"True. But there's a prestige factor involved as well, and that DOES sound like Junior. And given the other indicators we're getting from inside Henchco, it sounds like there are a couple of other major operations mounting."

"Terrific," Kim growled. "Can today get any crappier?"

"Of course it could, Princess. They could kill you."

"As your girlfriend says," Betty nodded. "But to be honest, what bothers me most is something that Aviarius DID let slip, something about having jumped the gun. We've pressed, but all we could get was the idea that whoever's setting this up was essentially promising a manufactured opportunity for a hit. Which may explain why no one's gone after the South American bait you laid."

"Yeah…" Kim admitted slowly. "Why chase after the rabbit if someone will drive it out of the woods for you?"

She paused for a second, then looked at Betty carefully. "You know, there's nothing you've told us that someone less identifiable couldn't have said."

"Well, yes, that's true enough," Betty acknowledged. "But given everything else that's happened today, I was thinking that maybe it was time you and I…

"…had that little chat we were talking about having?" Kim concluded without a break. As if they had been speaking the same sentence.

"I think so. You?"

"Y… yeah." Kim's eyes flicked to Shego and her mother. "Do we need them to…?"

"I imagine you'll end up telling them more than I'd like," Dr. Director grimaced. "But the illusion of privacy would be nice. Anne, is there someplace…?"

"I'm not even sure what you're talking about," Anne ventured, producing a set of keys. "But the coroner gave me the keys to her office. It's the next door up the hallway on this side. I imagine that Shego and I can find something to occupy us while you two talk… shop."

She was quite surprised when, instead of simply taking the keys, Kim reached over and clasped her in a bear hug, squeezing her to the point where Anne was beginning to wonder if she'd have to break free in order to breathe.

"Thanks Mom," Kim whispered as she finally let her parent go. "It's been a REALLY crappy day."

Anne and Shego watched as the other Doctor and Kim disappeared out the door, then looked at each other with almost identically wistful expressions.

The second hand on the clock on the wall made one complete revolution. And then another. And another.

Until, finally, Shego could stand it no longer and said what simply HAD to be said.

"So is this place always this dead?"

"I wondered how long it would be 'til you gave in," Anne smirked. "There's something about this place that brings out the worst puns. Do you play poker?"

"Against everyone except your daughter."

"Oh, you ARE a smart one," The older redhead grinned, producing a deck from a drawer and placing it on the autopsy table. "You cut."

"Why not. Looks like we've got some time to kill."

#####

Bones literally rattling from the chills that were racking her body, Bonnie dropped from the windowsill into the large bedroom of the suite that Junior had claimed for himself.

"Oh God, oh God," She whispered through chattering teeth as she collapsed to the floor in a pile. She couldn't even feel her face and it had been all she could do to hold onto the stonework for the last ten minutes, but finally… FINALLY… she'd made it to her goal.

She lay on the floor for she didn't know how long, soaking in the warmth, letting sensation creep back into her hands and feet before she finally found the energy to stand once more. She was so close to her goal now…

And YES! There it was! Junior's laptop, sitting on the large hotel-style desk! It was even already plugged in to the Ethernet port next to the base of the lamp!

Shuffling forward, her legs oddly cramped from the combination of cold and the sideways walking mode she'd been forced to make most of the journey up here in, she lurched into the office seat and hit the 'power on' button.

DA DA DING!

Oh Shit! The power-up music! Why did manufacturers put that stupid music on every computer? Didn't they know it could be FATAL?

Fortunately the computer had a separate mute key and she punched it half-way through the tune. She found herself running through a list of prayers she didn't know she had known… realizing, as she did, that apparently she, Bonnie, had been raised a Methodist… as the system slowly booted up. Had anyone heard that sound? And if they did, how much time did she have?

There! At last! The security code prompt. Had Junior left it unchanged?

Of course he had! It was still ADONIS 21. She typed it in quickly and waited for the rest of the system to come up.

Then the browser.

At least Kim Possible's web site came up quickly and one click took her to the 'requests' menu. As soon as the screen changed, she immediately opened the 'compose message' window.

Shit! What to write? The situation?

_Help. Bonnie. Prisoner. Castle Senior._

Okay, that summed it up nicely. But what could she possibly write that would make her… KIM… want to come? That Kim would even believe was really from her?

Something personal. Something private. Her mind swam through her milky pool of half-restored memories and then one that was so clear… and so personally humiliating… that it could ONLY come from her, came to mind.

_Cheercamp - Truth or Dare – XXX – I started it _

And then, because she couldn't help it she started to type

_I'm sorry Please_

But, to her horror, she was cut off at the _'Ple'_ as a voice spoke from directly behind her, accompanied by the sound of a cocking gun.

"**FREEZE! And don't even THINK of touching that keyboard again."**


	43. Chapter 43

_Author's Note: Well, if you're the type who reads the word counter on these things, you'll see that in the act of posting this one, I have officially passed the border into insanity. Over 200,000 words. Good grief. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Dr. Director, Anne Possible, Bonnie Rockwaller, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Summer Gale, Jack Hench, Aviarius, Gill, Big Daddy Brotherson, Gemini, Nanny Nane, Camille Leon and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 43

#####

Bonnie's whole body went rigid as she heard the click of the gun behind her. She'd never even heard the door open! And she'd been so close! So close! All she'd had to do was press send… that was ALL! Tears she didn't think she had left began to pour down her face.

But she obeyed the next orders the voice gave her anyway.

"**That's a good girl. Now SLOWLY, carefully… raise your hands above your head…. "**

Bonnie did as she was told. What else COULD she do?

"**Good. Now please, TURN your chair slowly around to face me."**

'_Please?'_ Even in her terror, Bonnie found that phrasing a little ridiculous, but she again followed her instructions to the letter. And found herself facing…

The most unlikely angel of death.

######

Ron yawned broadly, stretching like a chimp in a manner that would no doubt have horrified him a year or so previously. On the other hand, most of the changes in his life had been pretty darn positive, even if the path of getting there had left both he and Kim with more than their fair share of bruises. One thing that hadn't changed, however, was his preference to drop into the background. Fortunately, the exact specifics of what had gone on during the final battle with the Lowardians had never been completely divulged, for which he was incredibly grateful. He liked being a normal teen… well, young adult… and it felt strange to be back in the middle of all this action again.

Of course, he mused, as he picked up another box of supplies and placed it on his dolly, then passed one over to his partner, the exact definition of 'in the middle' wasn't exactly the same as it had been. When Aviarius and Gill had attacked Kim, his immediate response had been to attach himself like glue to his best friend. Instead, he'd found himself instantly yielding that spot to Shego… and if there had been ANY single change in his life that would have horrified 'teen' Ron more than his acceptance of his monkey nature, it would have been THAT. But here they were and there it was and… well, seeing where Kim seemed to be heading with her life, he knew he would never have been comfortable with continuing on the way things had been, whereas Big Green and Boobalicious… yeah, that girl had had a serious case of Kiminization.

"One more time," He sighed, making sure everything was secure on both carts as they began slowly wheeling them across the tarmac. To any outside observer, it would appear that he and Yori had been reduced to the role of stockboys and security guards. Nothing could be further from the truth, but for the last day, all any outside observer could see that they'd done was to receive packages from various delivery services, wheel them out to the waiting Global Rescue One, and then take turns guarding both the hanger and the aircraft while they waited for the 'Go " signal… whenever that might come. Ron understood the purpose of Shell Game, but it could sure get boring just going through the paces when you already really knew what was going on.

Hmm, now THAT was a thought, he wondered. Did Magicians feel the same way about the tricks they did. Probably not. But then again, Magicians got their pleasure from playing to an audience that was trying to figure out how a trick was done, while the audience THEY were playing to wasn't supposed to even suspect there was slight of hand going on.

Still, he had to say he was impressed as heck at the act of perceptual prestidigitation that Kim had come up with, especially since he knew how fast she'd had to toss it together. Not that he was surprised, mind you. He'd always known that Kim was even brighter than she'd let on… Ron had seen her purposely erasing correct answers on tests just to keep from getting consistently perfect scores… but since he'd come back to Middleton his best friend seemed to be on fire. Which, he smirked, was apparently literally true. He wondered if Kim had any idea she usually sported that sandalwood smell he referred to as 'eau de Shego' these days? He didn't know what those two were up to… probably DIDN'T want to know, but… he'd got the impression that Kim had tackled THAT aspect of her life with the same frightening kind of enthusiasm and dedication to "ahem' research that she did to everything else that caught her interest. It was ALMOST enough to make him feel sorry for Shego, knowing what it would take to keep up with a demanding K.P. Almost. But as someone who had almost been in her shoes, he was only too glad that the green woman had been there to take the redheaded bullet.

Besides, he mused, if ever there were two people made for each other, it was those two. Well, he thought, as he took in the image of the beautiful Japanese girl walking beside him… any two OTHER people, that is. The expression 'the best laid plans' popped into his head and he chuckled. Best 'laid' indeed. Wasn't it odd how fate tended to drive people who most deserved each other into each others' arms?

######

Sheldon winced as the door to his office slammed and the domineering figure of his childhood nightmare entered the room.

"Right," Nanny Nane snapped, looking somehow as natural in her current 'George Patton as a transvestite tank commander' uniform as she did in her usual nanny attire. Not surprising, considering her long stint in the RAC as a girl (she'd posed as a boy to help defeat the Hun) prior to moving on to several years with a mercenary company before finally settling on Nannyhood as a full-time profession once her eyesight began to go. "The troops are in full readiness and the aircraft are all primed and ready to go. I approve of your choice of the jet transports, by the way, but you should have run the choice by me first. Now we just need our employer to drive the fox to our hounds."

"Um, yes ma'am," Sheldon mumbled.

"What was that?" Nane glared. She'd never liked the Director boy, had only taken the job of handling him and his even more uncontrollable sister because everyone had said they couldn't be handled at all. And she'd proven them all wrong, of course. She'd never quite gotten little Betsy completely under her thumb, but Sheldon had finally snapped and been bent to her bidding. How convenient that his little predilection for playing world conqueror had made him so useful for this hunt they were now engaged in. Nane had once received a bountiful income from the pockets of the rich and famous she still held in thrall, but her extreme longevity… she was literally just too mean to die… had meant that she'd now outlived almost all of her little puppets. A half billion for killing Kim Possible would go nicely towards maintaining her secret estate in the mountains of Nepal.

Of course, she'd already assumed she'd be taking Sheldon's share. He'd be disappearing himself… right after he helped her dispose of whoever it was that had actually known of their connection. True world class supervillains didn't live as long as Nane had by letting others have the drop on her.

But all that would come later. For now, she thought of the pleasure of beating a certain red-headed nuisance to death with her umbrella… just as she should have once done with that little brat Betty Director.

######

Betty waited for Kim to pick a chair before turning to lock the door behind her, noting that the younger redhead had chosen one end of a black loveseat.

"So… you and Helen, huh?" Kim asked as she turned.

Caught off guard, Betty felt a deep flush crossing her face. "How did you…?"

"Um…," Kim wrinkled her nose in an odd and equally embarrassed little smile. "The Kimmunicator can do amazing things… especially when you're wearing two of them… but it can't duplicate smell QUITE yet."

"Oh." Betty's blush deepened. "Ohhh…"

"It's not that bad," Kim's lips pursed softly. "I couldn't tell with all the antiseptics in the morgue, and if I hadn't already suspected, I might not have noticed anyway… But when you walked past me in the hall…"

"God," Betty groaned, dropping onto the other end of the sofa. "I'm so…"

"Out of practice in the sneaking around department?"

"Yeah. You already suspected, huh?"

Kim rolled her eyes. "Dassak isn't just competent, she's brilliant. The fact that you forwarded her resume alone would indicate that something was up."

"Ah. And here I was thinking that I'd been so subtle."

"Yeah. And I used to think I was straight. Odd how I seem to have been the last to know, being psychic and all."

"No, it isn't. Strange, that is."

At Kim's raised left eyebrow, Betty continued.

"You don't think about yourself that much Kim. If you want to know the truth, I think the reason so many of your friends and family accepted Shego so quickly is that they… we… all feel you'll take a little better care of yourself if you keep in mind how losing you would affect her."

"I…" Kim started to protest, but then realized that Dr. Director was dead on in her analysis. She'd always viewed herself a tool, a means to an end, rather than an end in and of herself. And, frankly, she thought that was all for the best, given that on the rare occasions when she actually went for something for purely personal reasons, it either turned out to be a disaster or everyone thought she was being a bitch. Or both.

Well, cheese and crackers, this was certainly a depressing line of thought.

"You're allowed to be human, you know," Betty reminded her. "Nobody expects you to be perfect."

This time Kim raised BOTH eyebrows. In sequence. Right, then left. "They don't?"

Kim watched Betty sigh inwardly. "Okay, maybe they do. But it's only because you lead them there by expecting it of yourself."

"Hold on," Kim interrupted. "Are you actually having a conversation with me? Or is this a reenactment of one you have with yourself every morning?"

"Um… both, actually. And that's kind of the point. This… thing we have… it doesn't make us infallible… sometimes it'll even drag you in the wrong direction. That's not how it works."

Finally they were getting to the point!

"Then how does it work?"

Betty took a deep breath and focused. "Well, for one thing, you have to learn to deal in generalities. Oh, sometimes you'll get these really sharp feelings and flashes… um… visions, if you will. And if you're like me, the strongest ones tend to be about yourself. Some kind of self-preservation element. But they're only hints. Possibilities. And every time you act on them, you may be changing what you thought you felt. I know it sounds confusing and it is. The greatest expert I know of put it this way: 'Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.'"

"You did NOT just quote Yoda at me!"

"Just because he's fictitious doesn't make him wrong," the head of Global Justice shrugged. "And it sums it up nicely. Every single thing each and every one of us does changes the future every single second. So how could anyone see every possible future possibility… whose mind could hold that many trillions of possible threads? More importantly, who would want to? Because if you COULD see the future perfectly, that would mean it was unchangeable. Free will just went out the window. And would you really want to be about to see exactly what IS going to happen, yet be unable to change it? There's a reason Cassandra is one of the most tragic characters in Greek literature."

"And look at the opposite side of it," Betty continued after giving Kim just a second to mull that over. "Would it have been as wonderful discovering what you have with Shego if you'd already known it was going to be? I'll be honest, I haven't been as scared in years as I was when I started… um… thinking about Helen. And I have no idea where it's going. But that's a treasure to me. One that I intend to savor every day for as long as I can."

"Okay…" Kim acknowledged with frustration. "I can see all that. It's just that… I'd thought I had this extra weapon in the holster…"

"But you do. Just don't treat it as your primary source of direction. Or even your secondary. Think of it as an advisor whose opinion you find useful… a meteorologist for probabilities… and use it as a tie-breaker when you're not sure." Betty stopped for a second and re-ran what she'd just said through her own head. "Don't get me wrong. If you're getting the feeling that you really ought to do something… really, really ought to do something like you did with the oral surgery… don't ignore it. But if you think you can predict what someone else is going to do with any more accuracy than a rough guess, you're setting yourself up for a quick trip to the nut farm."

"What happened to the Mathter," Betty finally attacked the meat of the situation. "Was the result of thousands and thousands of random occurrences and decisions made by hundreds of other people. It's like trying to stop a wave from hitting a beach by standing on the shore and holding a piece of board in the surf. IF you had been in exactly the right place at the right time you MIGHT have been able to save him. But more likely he would have still died, because he'd have seen you as the threat and tried to avoid you, while ignoring the actions of the person who was the real danger."

"But it…"

"It wasn't your plan that killed the Mathter. It was someone who he'd trusted enough to put himself at their mercy, who decided not to show any. It was his decisions, his choices, and those of his killer, not yours, that tilted the scales against him." Betty's face grew dark. "And no matter how hard we try, there are always going to be times when the scales DO tip the other way. When nothing we can do can change things enough for us to ever feel like we did all we could."

"But…" Betty paused for emphasis. "You do have ANOTHER ace up your sleeve. One that I'm surprised you haven't figured out yet... given that you've already drawn on it a number of times. And it's really the most powerful weapon of all."

#####

"Holy Crap!" Adrena Lynn gushed in open admiration as she ogled the long, lethal looking craft. "What in the hell is this thing?"

"Nice, huh?" Crash Cranton grinned, copping a quick look down Lynn's half-open camo shirt while she looked at the jet-copter hybrid. "It's called a SkyVixen. A Mach 2.5 helijet we… uh… liberated a few years ago. Ideal for quick insertions into trouble zones."

"Yeah," Burn Burman added. "Eats aviation fuel like a pig, but worth every penny when it comes time to pull your bacon out of the fire."

"Or in this case," Dash confirmed, "Dropping the fire onto someone else's bacon. As of right now, there'll be one of us on board 24/7. The three of us can go from naked in bed to onboard and combat ready in 12 minutes. We're gonna put you through a crash course 'till you can do the same. Up for it?"

"No problem," Adrena grinned tightly. "When you've got a thousand dykes watching your ass, you learn to dress quickly. What say we go for 10?"

"Sounds like a plan," Dash grinned, wondering if the crazy bitch would let him supervise the naked part. "But first, let me show you our other little surprise. We call it the Shego-Killer."

#####

"What do you mean that's ALL the jet transports we could get?" Jack Hench scowled at the ratty little man. He was getting sick and tired of people telling him what they couldn't do.

"It's all there are," Hencho's head of shipping and transportation protested. "Someone else took out half the fleet yesterday and there AREN'T any others for rent or purchase anywhere."

"Terrific," Hench growled. "So we have nearly 500 ground troops but hypersonic transport for only a hundred of them."

"Yes sir, but I can cover the rest with our own conventional planes and two rentals."

Hench thought about it. If he treated the first group as shock troops…

"Fine, do it," He ordered, waiting until the mousey little man had vacated the room before looking up at the NEXT person waiting for a moment of his valuable time. "Yes?"

"Your lunch sir," the older woman smiled, "I'm sorry if the soup's a bit cold, but I've been waiting in line for twenty minutes. I can take it back and reheat it if you like?"

Finally, Hench thought with relief, someone who's not coming to tell me what they CAN'T do!

"No, that's fine…" He squinted to read her name bag, "Sue. And in the future, you don't have to wait in line. Just come on in, okay?"

"Thank you sir," Sue Donem smiled. "But I didn't mind waiting at all."

#####

"You're going to do WHAT?" Anne squawked. After her very thoughtful looking daughter had returned with Dr. Director, she and the director had reassumed the disguises they'd worn in, while Kim and Shego took on new aliases and the whole group had proceeded to the lair… er, Global Rescue, now disguised as a carpet installation crew. Having run out of digitized GJ agents to draw on, Wade had been forced to wing it, but hopefully nobody would notice that the carpet delivery team bore a striking resemblance to the cast of a certain show for young adults. Of course, if Kim had found Shego as Shia LeBeouf hilarious, Shego had found Kim as his/her sister even sillier.

"It's the same plan as before," Kim explained, now quite serious again. "Just a little more complex."

"A little more is the understatement of the century," Shego retorted. "When the idea was to track the Mathter to his lair and then substitute me for him once we'd got all his contact info like we'd planned, we could have gotten away with a hologram. But we had an advantage this time because they thought they were hitting an easy target like Gale, not you. Now, with him gone, we're down to Plan C… which means having to go in and switch out not just one villain, but maybe two AND your body on top of everything else. With the only other team that we think we've identified being Motor Ed and Electronique, I can't see that happening. We could probably pull a fast one on Eddie, but 'Nique is way too saavy."

"What about one of the two you have in custody?" Anne asked quickly. "Aviarius or Gill?"

"Might have worked if everyone hadn't already seen how easily your daughter took them down," Shego grumbled. "We might be able to con everyone into believing that one or the other had escaped, but to do that AND take Kim at the same time. No, no one's going to buy that."

"And," Shego concluded. "Since the information Gale got wasn't the same as the details we DID get out of Aviarius, it looks like every team got has slightly different contact info, so we couldn't just pretend to be one of those teams until we were SURE we had the right info."

"That's one of the details I came to tell you in person," Betty inserted, "We found the remains of Aviarius' van. It had been well hidden enough that we could have gone weeks without finding it, but when it went up in a fireball just before the Mathter did, it wasn't hard to triangulate from all the 911s. More to the point, the source of the detonation was a phone that seems to have been a twin to the one Gale had. I've got what was left of it in a box in the car. Maybe Wade can make something from it, but I wouldn't get your hopes up."

"So if there were silver phones in both cases, and apparently they had enough info on them that they were worth retrieving and destroying," Kim was already going down another tangent. "If we can get another phone…"

"You're getting real iffy there, Princess, and I'm kinda getting attached to seeing your head where it is."

"Perhaps…" A very unexpected voice spoke up. "It will not be as difficult as you think."

As one, everyone jerked around to stare at the elegant older gentlemen standing behind them.

"I believe, Ms. Possible, that we may of some assistance to each other," Senor Senior Sr. spoke softly, his normally confident face fighting to produce a melancholy smile.

#####

Ralph stared at the pathetic wreck of a girl facing him. She was filthy, covered in what looked like powdered rock and pigeon dung, and her reddish hair had become matted by the dual actions of wind and moisture. Her hands were practically black with grime, save for the huge red gouges and… God, a missing fingernail!

But it was her face that hit him most of all. It wasn't just that her beautiful features had been almost erased by grime, or that there was a huge red streak on one side where something had rubbed the skin completely raw. Not even her lips, so chapped they were actually bleeding.

No, it was the eyes. The tear-stained eyes so devoid of hope that it threatened to suck out his soul. Eyes that he could have been almost the twins of his own daughter's, had they obviously not just seen the horrors of hell.

And the horrors of hell were exactly what was on Ralph's mind. He'd been on edge ever since learning Junior's plans. After what he'd been forced to do. And the repercussions that he knew he'd have to pay for.

Then, after being drafted by Camille to help search the huge castle only minutes after returning from the freezing job of setting the thermite bombs on the Glacier, he'd had to walk through Junior's private 'amusement' area. He'd thought his employer was crazy already, but seeing all the instruments of torture that had been assembled, together with those movie lights and, weirdest of all, that giant statue of a deformed penis… he now knew Junior had to be totally certifiable.

God, how had he ended up in this situation? Fighting against someone like Possible, who gave as good as she got was one thing… but this…

And then his eyes blinked as he realized what it was that she'd pulled up. Kim Possible's website? And a message. Part of it obvious, the rest… a form of code?

Possible?

"Move to the side," he ordered softly, motioning the girl to the side with a wave of his gun, only realizing what he had done afterwards as she skirted to the side with a look of absolute dread in her eyes. But he couldn't let himself get absorbed in that now. What had she been doing?

"What does this last part mean?" He asked, trying to keep his voice even, to hide the tremor.

"It… I know her…" the girl's voice sounded like she'd been gargling glass, it was so torn, rattling and bloody. "We were… not friends but… but…"

"Never mind," Ralph cut her off. Whatever else she was going to say was really unimportant. He'd been asking for guidance and he'd found it.

Cursoring up, he typed in "Thermite bombs on Glacier Domeniul Sangeroase de Gheata si Depresie. Detonation at sunset. 100+ armed troops."

Then, carefully setting his gun down on the table, he looked at Bonnie.

"Go ahead and finish it."

"What?" Her eyes were too full of disbelief.

"Finish it," Ralph repeated. "Whatever you need to add to make sure she knows it's real. And then I'll show you the secret tunnel systems. With any luck, we can find a place to hide before they realize I've just turned in my notice."


	44. Chapter 44

_Author's Note: Well, it's been a little longer than usual between updates... pushing four days? A lot of that has been part of the juggling to get all the pieces flowing… by the end of this chapter, that's essentially done. Next chapter… oh, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Just trust me when I say that EVERYONE's going to be shooting at EVERYONE. Since I haven't said it lately, thanks so much for all the favs and reviews. I REALLY mean to send everyone a response, but… as you may have noticed, in another fit of insanity, I started ANOTHER fic before this one is over. It's a silly piece called The SLASH WRITER'S GUIDE to BETTER KIGO, and it will be an ongoing bit. If you haven't checked it out, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Okay, enough chat, go on and read the story already! __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Dr. Director, Dr. Anne Possible, Bonnie Rockwaller, Will Du, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Summer Gale, Jack Hench, Big Daddy Brotherson and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 44

#####

"What do you mean you haven't found her yet?" Junior snarled, the veins in his head standing out as his spittle impacted Camille in the face. She'd learned long ago that backing down was as good as defeat in the circles where she ran, yet she found herself recoiling in spite of herself. The fact was, Junior was beginning to scare her. Seriously.

"We think she was outside the castle for a time, using the ledges," Camille responded carefully, not wanting to spark an even bigger explosion from the volatile villain. The longer she was here, the more she began to think that joining up with Junior had been a major miscalculation on her part. She'd already suspected that he was mentally unbalanced, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that that was a severe understatement along the lines of 'nerve gas is bad to breathe.' "The snow on the ledges outside her room had been disturbed and there were footprints on some of the others. That must have been how she evaded the first sweep. Now that we have enough men on the project, we're going back over everything again, including all the secret passages."

"And how could she have known about those? Who told her?" Junior's fury was shocking and for not the first time Camille realized how powerfully built he really was. Steroids no doubt, but muscle mass was muscle mass and her attempts to keep from provoking his anger were obviously failing.

"How in the hell should I know if she knows about them or not?" She fired back, just barely keeping her own temper in check. How DARE he treat HER like… like… a common lackey! "I'm covering ALL the bases because I DON'T know what she knows! You're the one who told everyone to stay away from her! How could she get out of a locked room in a castle that used to be a prison? You tell me what she's capable of!"

Junior looked… volcanic would be an appropriate word… but at least some of the logic of what she was saying got through. And Camille thanked God for that, because if he'd gone the otherway, things could have gone very badly for her. For all her chameleon powers, Camille herself was just an average woman, and the hulking Junior could have snapped her like a twig.

"The girl believes herself to be Kim Possible," Junior thought out loud. "Perhaps it is best to assume that she will attempt to behave as Kim Possible would."

"If she's been scaling around the outside of this castle, I think we can forget the word 'assume,'" Camille smoldered.

And suddenly found one of her arms in Junior's great hand, the bones being ground painfully together!

"Then treat her like Kim Possible!" Junior's look was pure murder. "Just bring her to the studio alive!"

And then she was free and he was stalking off.

With a soft moan of pain, Camille rubbed her arm where the finger-shaped bruises were already rising. This was a shit deal. What the hell had she been thinking of?

She'd been thinking the younger Senior was a minor threat, that's what she'd thought, a rich fool living off the leavings of his father and a pawn that could easily manipulated. Now she was starting to realize that the lazy oaf wasn't all of the real Junior, that there was another face behind the mask of the indolent playboy, and that was a face that terrified her.

Ever since arriving she'd been watching Junior's behavior deteriorate from odd to absolutely frightening. To begin with, there was that business with the glacier, though she'd dismissed that as typical Senior theatrics. The old man would have made similar threats, whilst all the while having some secret remote device to abort the 'unstoppable' doomsday clock. But as Junior had become increasingly agitated over his men's inability to find the missing Rockwaller girl, he had begun ordering her to pull more men off the other positions in order to search for her... at a time when he should have been focusing on baiting the trap for Possible... and she was beginning to question whether he even had a solid grasp on his priorities.

The real tipping point had been the 'tools' laying out so causally in the area Junior called his 'studio,' the huge three-tiered open rotunda area that he'd lined with film lights and camera equipment and that giant disgusting statue in the middle. Knives. Scalpels. A fucking BONE saw! What in the hell was he planning to do with all of those… things? Camille had no love for Possible, but anyone with half a brain could see that putting a dozen bullets in her and turning in the body wasn't just the most efficient plan of attack, it was also the safest. After all these years, the one thing any villain knew was that there hadn't been bonds yet discovered that could hold Kim Possible, yet Junior actually seemed to be more interested in torturing her than killing her. As 50% owner of that corpse to be, Camille saw that as not just spine-chilling as hell, but also bad planning and a potentially fatal mistake given their past history. And if the rest of his planning was that insane… he HAD to have been just been pretending to be serious about destroying the dam, hadn't he…? Then where did that leave her?

Camille was evil, but it was a self-centered form of evil that was focused on making things better for Camille Leon. Becoming a partner to mass murder wasn't the sort of thing that the rest of the world was ever going to forgive.

But… she HAD agreed to join this operation, and in actively helping to deceive Jack Hench, she'd burned some major bridges. Under normal circumstances, Henchco was one of the few neutral parties in villainy that she might have been able to ask for assistance, but… at this point she'd have to have some major negotiating chips before attempting that. Despite her powers, Camille knew that she was a very small fish in the great sharkpool of evil, and to make an enemy of someone as powerful as Hench… or the Seniors would be a terminal sentence.

On the other hand, if she could find out how to contact their real employer, the one who'd be paying for the actual hit, she'd be rich enough to meet any threat on even footing. But there was no way Junior was going to reveal that information and her three e-mails to Big Daddy Brotherson had gone unanswered.

She'd have to find another way out. And in the meantime, she'd buy herself time with Junior by stepping up the hunt for the Rockwaller girl. Camille had grown a tough skin since she'd been disinherited, regularly did things that would have made her debutante self vomit in disgust, but at this point the idea of sending anyone to Junior left her feeling sick and nauseated.

But better her than me, she thought, better her than me.

#####

"How in the hell did you get in here?" Shego demanded as she, Kim and Dr. Director seemed to form into a single formidable female mass between the unexpected intruder and Kim's mother.

On another occasion Senor Senior Sr. would have applauded such bravado and then reciprocated by playing the amusing game Americans called twenty questions before revealing the truth. At this particular point in time, however, having flown half-way across the world on the first available hypersonic transport he could arrange… fortunately they'd all been in the process of being called back to the U.S… he was so jet-lagged that it was all he could do to stand vertical.

Which Kim's mother, a famous doctor whose name was… Anne, Senior remembered… apparently immediately recognized.

"For God's sake," She swore, stepping around her self-appointed bodyguard. "The poor man's in no shape to be a danger to anyone except himself."

"Mom…" Kim warned. "He could be arm…"

"Hush Kim," Anne snapped, as Senior found himself pushed down into a chair as the woman was taking his pulse. "When was the last time you slept, Mister Senior?"

"I…" Senor Senior began, then realized he wasn't sure. It seemed to have been days ago.

"Right," Anne nodded. "My recommendation is that you get to bed as soon as possible… Kim, you have some spares here, right? And Shego, could you get him some water?" Anne gave Shego a stern look that sent the green ex-villainess scurrying in the direction of the kitchen. "But I assume you have something important to say first?"

"Ah, yes," Senor Senior Sr. sighed. "It concerns this contract that has been placed on your daughter."

He watched the two women still in front of him exchange looks and was impressed to see the head of Global Justice apparently cede the immediate handling of the situation to Kim.

"You were saying something about being of assistance," Kim prompted softly.

"Yes, I intercepted one of the phones you were speaking of. One that was intended for my… for Junior," the suddenly very frail villain admitted. At their sudden look of alarm he smiled weakly. "No, I do not have it with me. My mind is not yet so far gone that I would carry a device from an unknown and obviously unbalanced individual that could be remotely… detonated, I believe, you said in your earlier conversation?"

"Exactly how long have you been here?" Shego asked incredulously, having apparently teleported to the kitchen and back, handing him a glass of water. "And how in the hell did you get past the security?"

At that, Senior had to smile. It was nice to know he still had some tricks the youngsters weren't aware of.

"I was here long enough. And as to how… you were very clever, my dear Shego, to have run the construction of this lair through my accounts rather than Drakken's. What you couldn't have known, however, is that I have a long-standing special arrangement with Henchco's senior engineer… one not even Hench himself is aware of… which is to always put a secret hidden escape tunnel in my own lairs, unmarked on any blueprint and accessible only via my own retina scan and access code." The Villain pointed to the far wall of the room, where a seemingly seamless stretch of blank wall had suddenly sprouted a doorway. "And as you allowed the engineers to assume that this was actually one of my lairs, it was therefore installed as covertly as all the others… as you can see."

"Son of a…" Shego started to swear, but was cut off as Senior Sr. raised one hand up in gesture, reminding her that there were more important matters to attend to.

"Of course," The suave villain continued, "I would still not have know of this lair's existence were it not for… certain other incidents that have recently come to my attention. Those prompted me to do a quick but comprehensive review of my books looking for irregularities, and when I found a customer service survey from Henchco for a lair I'd never had built, dating from just after Shego did her little job for me, I put those facts together with where your new organization is based and wound up… well, here."

"So let's get back to the main subject, shall we?" Kim growled in irritation, only to be met with a disapproving smile from her mother. "Please and thank you?" she added meekly.

Such a good child she was, Senior thought, and he could see the thoughts running through her head. Obviously she wasn't expecting the older villain to actually pull a weapon on them on this point. That made no sense when he could clearly have shot them all in the back had he wished… or waited until they slept and let a whole army of henchmen in. Kim Possible was still young and impulsive, but rash was not a word he would have ever applied to her, and there was a newfound maturity to her demeanor that he found… most impressive. Coming here HAD indeed been the wisest choice.

"You said you intercepted a phone," Kim started again. "One that was intended for Junior? For some reason, I don't think you came to tell us he ISN'T going after the contract."

"Yes, you are quite correct. In fact, I came because I think you are the only one who can help me save my son from… it would help if I could show you something. May I? " Senior queried, indicating towards the inner pocket of his jacket. At the cautious nod of approval from Kim, he reached in slowly and carefully, making sure to be as unthreatening as possible as he pulled out the reprehensible excuse for a 'script,' holding it out so that the title "The Death Of Kim Possible" was clearly visible. "I am afraid to say that, as bad as YOUR last few days must have been, Miss Possible, mine have been no more pleasant."

#####

"How much longer 'til you think they find us?" Bonnie whispered from the tiny space she occupied between the two huge crates.

"I'm a Henchman, not a psychic," Ralph returned in a low voice, then realized he should probably try to be a little more optimistic for the girl's sake. The poor kid had obviously already been through way too much already; but on the flip side, if he made things sound too good she might get overconfident and… hell, she'd been doing okay until he caught her, so he'd have to trust her. "And with any luck, they won't snap to what we're doing."

Or, to be more specific, what Ralph was doing. It had dawned on him that no one actually knew he'd swapped sides, so when a team of searchers would come near, they'd hide Bonnie as well as they could, then Ralph would 'merge' himself into the search teams and 'cover' the area where Bonnie was hidden. They'd pulled the trick four times already, but eventually someone was going to notice that good old Ralph kept wandering off from the main team. Or someone was going to want to search the same area. And when that happened…

Well, Ralph needed to make sure they were OUT of the castle before that happened. Which was why, in a manner exactly opposite to the way someone in hiding would normally try to run, they'd been slowly working themselves towards the front gate. It was more heavily patrolled, true, but no one would be expecting the fugitive girl to have someone in a Hench uniform running interference. And if they could get out of the main gate, past the first patrol post… they just might have a chance. But how?

And as he was wondering that, his eyes roamed up to the label on the side of the cases Bonnie was hiding between.

Bingo.

#####

"I don't believe it," Shego shook her head in shock and horror. "I always knew there was something off about Junior but this…" The group had moved to the meeting table that still stood in the middle of the lair and dialed Wade into conversation via Kimmunicator, his holographic presence sitting in a phantom chair at the end section left clear of real chairs for that purpose. Meanwhile the OTHER holographic display was displaying the latest police feeds regarding the recoveries at the lagoon.

And if there had been any doubts about Senor Senior Sr.'s sincerity before, the grief he showed as they'd reviewed the information he'd been living with was… well, suffice it to say, nobody doubted anymore. Only someone who felt he HAD to make amends for those nightmarish images could have ever looked at those pictures more than once.

The question now was, what to do about it? Hell, where were they even supposed to start?

Dr. Director opted to take the direct approach. "And you think he's holding Ms. Rockwaller against her will?"

Senor Senior nodded gravely. "But I can be sure of nothing. Not where they might be or even if the young woman is still alive."

"Wade," Kim suddenly spoke. "Can you pull up those tapes from the museum robbery in Kālpanika Rāstra?"

The images were on screen in seconds and now that she knew what she was looking for, it was obvious who the redhead in the shot was.

"That's Bonnie," Kim confirmed.

"You're sure?" Dr. Director pressed.

"I can't believe I didn't recognize that skanky ass before," Kim shook her head affirmatively. "As many time's as she's shaken it in my face?"

"Excuse me?" Shego asked with a deceptively mild tone.

"Cheerleading," Kim clarified. "It was always between the two of us, who was going to be on top and…" She stopped and listened to what her mouth was saying and her lover's reactions. "Of the PYRAMID, Shego. Not… geez! There was NOTHING like THAT between us, okay?"

"In any case," Dr. Director took control before things could deteriorate. "This just muddies the water even more. If we assume the robbery was actually an attempt to lure Kim into a trap, then was Rockwaller knowingly acting as bait?"

"That doesn't sound like Bonnie…" Kim began. "I mean, she had… has her issues, but…"

"There may be another explanation," Senior suddenly inserted. "Mr. Load, if you will be so good as to access the following web address." The urbane villain rattled off a long sequences of numbers which Wade matched key for syllable until what was obviously some kind of webcam feed came up. On two separate screens there were two objects.

"That phone's identical to the one Gale had," Shego acknowledged, having been the only one to get a good look at it prior to its self-immolation along with the Mathter.

"Yes. And if you're wondering, it's currently sitting on a scanning bed at Senior Industries in Greece," Senior volunteered. "I wasn't about to move it, but I believe the scanning tech there should be sufficient enough for Mr. Load to determine quite a bit about it. I was hoping it would provide a clue."

"Brilliant!" Wade chortled. "I'm on it!"

"In the meantime," Senior continued, "I believe the second of these items may explain some things. As you can see, it is a Henchco Attitudinator and I verified that it is still quite operational in the act of obtaining the first item."

"How many more of those things are out there?" Kim frowned, looking at Dr. Director with concern. "Didn't Hench say that they'd destroyed every one that had already been built?"

"No doubt he simply built more afterwards," Senior grimaced. "The only reason anyone has ever trusted Hench is because they trust his long term greed to overwhelm any short-term ambitions."

"Truth," Betty agreed. "Just because they're not on the website doesn't mean they can't be special ordered."

"Then maybe a visit to Henchco…" Kim began…

"Kim! Everyone!" Wade suddenly interrupted. "We just got a hit on the website and… Kim, I think you specifically need to read it. It's Bonnie… or it SAYS it's Bonnie anyway."

The bottom half of Wade's image vanished and was replaced by scrolling text.

_Kim_

_Help. This is Bonnie. _

_Thermite bombs on Glacier __Domeniul Sangeroase de Gheata si Depresie._

_Detonation at sunset. 100+ armed troops._

_W__e swore on pain of death but…_

_Cheercamp - Truth or Dare – XXX – I started it _

_I'm sorry. Please believe me._

_Trying to escape Castle Senior. One ally.(?)_

"Castle Senior?" Senor Senior asked incredulously. "That's a hotel project I mothballed. But why…?"

Kim read the message twice, not sure exactly how to react. Okay, she knew HOW she should react, but… there was some unexpected content. "Wade, can you pull up the information on that Glacier and tell me what kind of damage thermite bombs could do."

"Right."

"This could be a trap," Betty spoke into the silence that followed, looking directly at Senor Senior. "The timing…?"

"No," Kim stated. "I don't think so. I mean, I think it IS a trap, but Bonnie's letting us know about it before we step in it."

"How can you be sure?" Betty demanded.

"It's a good question Princess," Shego remarked. "If you're sure, that's good enough for me but…"

"Kim," Wade interrupted. "I'm still running the preliminary numbers, but this is really bad."

"Define bad," Shego scowled.

"Worst case scenario? 16,000 people dead, half a nation left without power, widespread starvation after major crop failures…"

"Dear God," Anne and Senor Senior spoke almost simultaneously.

Kim's brain was trying its best to crunch figures, but there was too much extraneous information clouding the way.

"Um… Mom, would you mind taking Senor Senior to the kitchen? There are sandwich fixings in the fridge or maybe you could heat up some soup?"

"You want me to make… sandwiches?" Anne asked in stunned befuddlement.

"I think…" Senor Senior slid in smoothly, "That your daughter is politely trying to say that she has information she needs to share with the others that she doesn't want me to know, but doesn't trust me to wander around on my own, is that correct, Miss Possible?"

"Uh, yeah," Kim nodded warily. "Do you mind mom?"

"Of course not dear," Anne smiled. "Come along Senor… what IS your first name, anyway? I'm Anne."

"Please call me Ricardo, my dear lady. And I would be most privileged if you would allow me to assist you in making these sandwiches."

"You're on. Fortunately Shego's in charge of the kitchen here so there should be a lot to choose from. God forbid if my daughter was in charge of buying, there'd be nothing but Toastie tarts and cold cereal…"

Kim watched her mother and the older villain retreat into the hallway that led to the kitchen area. When she couldn't hear them anymore, she figured there's be enough soundproofing between them to continue.

"So what's the real reason Princess?" Shego puzzled, having not quite bought the 'villain doesn't need to know line.'

"Actually, the person I really didn't want to hear this was my mom," Kim admitted. "But it's about the reason I know Bonnie's message is real and genuine. If your lives are going to be at risk, I think you deserve to know what I'm basing my intuitions off of before you sign on, but… uh…"

"Which is…?" Shego pressed.

"Well… it's embarrassing," Kim's face was flushing a bright red.

"Princess…" Shego's tone was getting sterner.

"Really embarrassing," Kim stressed.

"You know what?" Wade suddenly interrupted. "I've decided that I probably don't need to hear whatever this is. I'll start cluing everyone else in and then you can call me back, okay?"

As Wade's image winked out, Shego and Kim both looked at Dr. Director.

"Oh, I'm staying for this," Betty batted her eyes innocently. "And Kim, the longer you drag it out, the worse it's going to become."

"Fine!" Kim gave up, although the look on her face indicated that she'd rather be walking on hot coals while juggling rattlesnakes. "What I said a few minutes ago about Bonnie and I never… that wasn't _exactly_ true."

#####

Camille had been avoiding Junior as best as she could. She'd even taken the form of a Henchman a few times… fortunately the grey henchco suits all of the men were wearing were so shapeless that one size really did fit all. But eventually she was going to have to go up into that creepy inner-sanctum of his and tell him that they still couldn't find the girl. That… was something she'd really rather avoid, as she wasn't so sure that he would be thinking about her future usefulness in catching Kim Possible as satiating whatever… it was that he wanted the girl for. If only she could be positive that he was really going to be able to take Possible down. THAT would be worth the stains on her conscience, but the more she studied Junior's 'elite' inner group, the more it seemed like they had been chosen for the fact that they asked no questions, not any kind of skill. And while they'd recruited a hundred henchmen to bulk out the lot, she wasn't too impressed with most of them.

No, the more she looked things over, the more sure she was that Junior was going to blow it. And that would leave HER ass hanging in the wind once the law caught up with her for having played a part in his plans. She'd skip herself if it wasn't for the fact that Junior had a full lock down on the castle. Talk about bad karma. If she hadn't helped Junior get all these Henchmen from Hench, she wouldn't be at the mercy of the men she'd helped hire…

And that's when it hit her. Junior had had to use her to get Hench to send his goons, because Hench only cared about one thing, and Junior didn't have it on hand. He was banking on money that currently didn't exist. That was a habit Camille had gotten out of after her credit cards were all canceled and she'd ended up on the streets. Oh, in retrospect, her father had probably expected her to come weeping back to him, her tail between her legs; but what he'd done instead was sever the only bond that had still linked them. And Camille had quickly learned that, if you were a good looking woman who wasn't too choosy about who you were willing to sleep with, a girl could get by for a good while on just looks and charm… especially after she'd become able to take on any look her clients demanded.

But what that whole wretched experience HAD done was make her extremely conservative financially. If she didn't have it, Camille didn't think about it. But she'd been perfectly willing to help Junior pull an advance against a bill he wasn't going to be able to cover. Why shouldn't she be willing to do the same for herself?

After all, she DID have something that was worth a LOT of money to the right person. She knew exactly where Kim Possible would be this evening, because as crazy as he was, the bait in Junior's trap really was perfect. Brotherson still wasn't returning her e-mails, but if there was ANYONE else in the entire world who could find out who the mysterious contractor was, it was Hench… and unlike Brotherson, he had REAL assets he could deploy.

And now that she thought about it, Hench didn't know that it had been her masquerading as Senor Senior Sr., so if she contacted him with the information that SHE was in possession of the information necessary to capture Kim Possible, promising to cut him in for 50% of the action well… even to Jack Hench a quarter of a billion dollars was nothing to be sneezed at.

But would it be worth eliminating a troublesome and apparently crazy son of a regular customer if things got ugly?

She thought about the man. His reputation. And realized it was ridiculously stupid question.

Pulling out her smart-phone, she pulled up Hench's private email address and began typing.

#####

"Wait, so I WASN'T the first girl you ever kissed?" Shego stared at Kim incredulously.

"I was DRUNK. The ONE time in my life I ever broke the rules. Cheercamp. Right after my first year on the squad. Someone's older sister snuck in a case of Lowerton Lager and…" She grimaced. "I let peer pressure get the better of me."

"I'm more interested in what kind of pressure your lips were making with this Rockwaller tramp."

"It wasn't like that!" Kim protested softly. "We were playing truth or dare and… I ALWAYS take the dare. And then… someone dared me to… to…"

"Kiss Bonnie?" Dr. Director prompted.

"Three times," Kim admitted with a gulp. "And the first two times were FINE! There was more passion in how I kiss my brothers! But the third time…."

"Yeessss?" Shego's tone was as dark as the underside of a bat's ass inside a tomb.

Kim brought her eyes up to meet Shego's evenly. "Spit was swapped, okay? And… and there MAY have been some tongue action. I don't know, the whole thing happened in a haze and as soon as we realized what was happening…."

She looked up to see the unbelieving looks on the other women's faces. "Look. I always thought Bonnie did it, she always claimed I did it, and both of us told the others that if ANY of them EVER mentioned it again, they were DEAD women."

Kim focused her attention on Shego, she didn't give a damn what Betty thought. "I wasn't… God, I didn't think I was gay then. I was mortified. And so was Bonnie. If there was one thing that we ever agreed on after that, it was that THAT incident was never to be mentioned again. I'd almost completely buried it in my subconscious…"

"But if she used it in the message, that means she's probably not acting under someone else's control," Betty mused.

"More than that," Kim explained, never taking her eyes off the too-quiet Shego. "BONNIE just took the blame. She just admitted that she's the one who slipped ME the tongue!"

Betty's eyes narrowed. "I thought you said you couldn't remember if…?"

"OKAY! THERE WAS TONGUE! And it was probably longer than I think it was… and I mean the TIME, not the TONGUE! I just… I don't know… I…" Kim looked at Shego with desperate eyes. "Shego? It didn't mean anything and that was a long time ago. Could you just… say something? Please?"

Shego's face was like stone.

For about 15 seconds.

And then she exploded in laughter so loud and convulsive that she fell out of her chair.

"BwaHA HA ha! No wonder Stoppable wasn't surprised about us! You had to have been the gayest straight girl in your whole school Kitten!" That was too much for Shego, she'd been halfway up but doubled over again on the floor, laughing like an idiot.

"But Bonnie just…" Kim protested, completely unsure of how to handle this reaction.

"It takes two to French Princess, and if your lips were closed, it wouldn't matter what she tried to stick in there," Shego snickered from under the table. "What I can't believe is that's what you were worried about! For the record, I don't CARE what you did in High School." A green hand reached up and snagged Kim by her uniform belt, pulling her down to her knees over her lover's prone form. "I care for who you're doing now, and that's me, just me and only me, right?"

"Well, yeah, of course," Kim practically glowed with relief. "You're my everything!"

"Then let's not worry about it…" Shego showed her alligator smile, pulling Kim the rest of the way down and making sure her claim on the redhead's lips was secure. After that chore was done and they were forced to surface for air, she continued with a lazy, satiated smirk. "Though don't be too surprised if I take Ms. Rockwaller aside after we've rescued her… skanky ass, I believe you called it? And make sure that she understands where the property lines have been drawn?"

"Tell me where you want the Property of Shego tattoos and I'll make the appointment…" Kim promised before a totally serious look consumed her face again. "Once we get this rescue planned that is. If it is a rescue and not a really well set trap that Bonnie's been tricked into being the bait of."

"Oh good," Betty stuck her head under the table. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten that little matter."

And it was exactly at THAT moment that Will Du, who had been traversing the tube network all night, walked into the room.

"Oh what NOW?" The exhausted agent groaned, seeing his two senior officers fondling under the table while his PREVIOUS senior seemed to be watching.

"Just a perfectly healthy sexual relationship, Will," Betty replied with a straight face. "Oh, and there's a supervillain in the kitchen making sandwiches. And did I mention we have a rescue we have to plan and launch in the next…?"

"Three hours if we want to get there before the Thermite goes off," Shego calculated.

"Not a problem," Kim's voice was filled with confidence. "I think variation 3 of Turkey Shoot will cover all the bases."

"Rather nicely, in fact," She added with an expression that would do the Cheshire Cat proud.

######

Jack Hench looked at the message on his private e-mail browser again. Was Camille Leon serious?

No, obviously she was serious… and even more obviously she wasn't one of Brotherson's chosen assassins or she wouldn't have been asking how to contact the person who'd issued the contract… unless it was Brotherson playing an even deeper game. A double… or was it triple cross… was always possible, but on the other hand...

He'd already figured out that Henchco's only way out was if Hench's own forces were the team that took Possible down. Now he had someone claiming to know where Possible would be… someone who had a LOT to lose if she turned out to be wrong. And while Camille Leon was more of an expensive prostitute than a real supervillain, her powers DID allow her to gain access to information that no one else could. She'd admitted to trying to contact Brotherson, but he was completely off the grid… which Hench knew to be true, of course.

Of course, he thought, there was an end run around all of this. If he sent a team of Henchmen out to support Leon and Possible was there, he won. If he sent a team out there and Possible didn't show, he'd have only sent part of his available forces. And if, by chance, they DID take Possible down and something happened to Leon during the action… well, no one ever even needed to know that they'd had a deal in the first place.

How convenient that he just happened to have a hundred troops waiting in a hypersonic transport.

'_Camille Leon,'_ Jack Hench thought with an evil grin. _'You've just made a deal with the devil.' _

#####

Sue Donem looked at the message that had just been forwarded to her private monitor. She'd dropped a tap on Hench's private computer terminal the last time she'd brought him lunch. At any other time it would have been way too risky, but 'Sue's' days at Henchco were numbered already and if whatever was going down was going to be the last major bit of intelligence she hauled out of this stinking place, then she was going to grab everything she could take with her.

But this… this was so big that she'd never even anticipated it. Hench was really going to do it. He was going to go after Possible himself. And apparently, Camille Leon had just promised him the opportunity to do just that. That was the sort of information her employer would find more than just useful. And they would pay well for it, oh yes…

####

"Hey, where are you going with that forklift?" The guard's voice was irritated but not alarmed.

"More thermite," Ralph responded, temporarily bringing the forklift to a halt, all the while thinking '_Act like nothing's wrong, like this is a job you really don't want to do…' _He gave the other Henchman… was it Stan? His best long-suffering look. "MISTER Senior decided that he wanted a faster melt on the eastern side, so WE get to schlep it up there."

"Yeah, that's what you get for being a Henchman," the guard nodded, motioning him forward towards the gate.

'No,' thought Ralph, 'What I get for being a Henchman is so much guilt that I'm about to get myself killed trying to undo what I've already done.'

He hadn't been lying about heading up to the Glacier. But what he… and the girl hidden inside the box marked 'Thermite' were going to attempt to do was REMOVE all the detonators that Ralph had helped place. Once she'd learned what all the boxes of explosives were for, she'd insisted on it and… well, he really hadn't had the strength to argue against her.

"_We can't just sit here and wait for Kim to come and save everyone's ass,"_ Bonnie had said. _"If we can take out even a few of those devices, we might be able to keep the glacier from collapsing into the lake." _

"_We'd be better off disarming the bombs on the barrier trees,"_ Ralph had argued.

"_Did you help set those? Do you know where they are?" _She'd asked. Damned good questions, now that he thought about it.

"_No,"_ He'd admitted.

"_Then let's take care of what we know we can take care of… and trust in Kim to handle the impossible." _

It was odd, thought Ralph, how he knew he was probably going to die in the very near future, but it didn't bother him as much as he thought it would.

Because he was finally doing the right thing.

And it felt astonishingly good.


	45. Chapter 45

_Author's Note: You've been waiting for it, the big guns are dropping and some of the last little hooks I dropped way, way back are coming back to haunt the plot again! I had to break this chapter because it was running long again, but I think you'll be pleased at the AQ (action quotient.) For what it's worth, the last half of this chapter was written with the original Jonny Quest theme song running non-stop in my head. Did that channel the spirit of the great Doug Wildey? I hope so. Also stealing a lot from every Bond film ever made, as well as a certain Clint Eastwood film, Our Man Flint and… well, dang, just about everything I can pull in. For those who've been reviewing, thank you! It really helps to get feedback! For those who've been reading but haven't left any reviews… thank you as well, but if you could sneak a review in… I'm just short of 300 here and then I could make Spartan jokes. Okay, that whining aside, assuming ANYONE is still reading this, do NOT read the legal stuff first if you want to avoid spoilers. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Doctor Betty Director, Ron Stoppable, Yori, Bonnie Rockwaller, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Jack Hench, Big Daddy Brotherson, Adrena Lynn, Jim and Tim Possible (formerly known as the Tweebs,) Team Impossible (Dash Demond, Crash Cranstin and Burn Burman,) Hirotaka, Sheldon 'Gemini' Director, Pepe, Nanny Nane, Motor Ed, Mr. Barkin, the Yamanouchi ninja school and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Lt. Gay Ellis MAY be the property of Gerry Anderson and Century21, but she's not saying. No comment on Agents Smart & Hilton, who don't appear as themselves anyway, and I'm not allowed to reveal Ms. Donem's real name, though if you read between the lines, you might want to cry uncle.. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Ralph Emerson, Sam Jackson, Eric Jackson, Jose Mendoza and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 45

#####

"Damnit!" Big Daddy Brotherson smashed his fists against his workstation desk, smashing his coffee mug and splattering the last dregs across his keyboard. No wonder supervillains were all so neurotic! His whole plan hinged on destroying a national treasure and murdering a hundred innocent tourists… something the guerrillas he'd originally contracted with were more than happy to do. Unfortunately, they'd been caught in an unplanned firefight with their own country's militia and had lost ten men, including their demolitions expert AND most of the explosives they'd acquired for the job. They were still willing to undertake the mission, of course, but because of the short time window that they'd have to operate in, it was getting perilously close to the abort window on phase one of the operation. How hard could it be to find a decent explosives expert? Well, a decent explosives expert with no morals and the ability to speak fluent Spanish? Apparently a lot harder than one would think.

Brotherson looked at the mess he had just made and realized that, not having any henchmen, he was going to have to clean it up himself. He'd always had great respect for the Senor Senior Seniors of the world… villains who always had a backup plan and an escape route in their pocket… but after even this short time, he had to admit that even the Dementors and Drakkens were going up a notch in his appraisal, with their ability to bounce back from innumerable defeats with yet another malevolent scheme. Maybe it was true that the cockroaches would inherit the Earth. Human cockroaches perhaps, but roaches all the same.

Grabbing the top twenty of a stack of Bueno Nacho napkins… for some reason they always included more than any single human could possibly need for an order of ten nacos… he began blotting up the sticky mess that had once been coffee before multiple additions of non-sugar sweetener and non-dairy creamer had reduced it to a consistency more like sludge. How many cups had he had now? Thirty? Sixty? Judging from the way his hands were jittering, whatever the actual number was, it wasn't good, yet…

Brotherson stopped as he realized that there was liquid pooling where he had just wiped up. Now how was that…?

Damn! It was blood! He'd cut himself somehow with the stupid mug. He'd been so irate he hadn't noticed, but there was a big gash on his left arm.

The left arm.

"SHIT!" Brotherson swore, dropping the sticky mass of paperpulp and caffeine and attacking the still moist keyboard with flying fingers. In scant seconds, he'd pulled up the footage of Possible at the press conference. Yes, no doubt about it. He'd noted before that her left arm was in some kind of wrapping, probably one of those new slim casts. That made sense, he'd seen in the actual footage of the battle with Aviarius that she'd injured it. Yes, she was definitely not using that arm whenever she could.

But now. The plane footage. Possible on the Lear Jet's gate. And sure enough, there she was LEANING on her LEFT ARM.

That was what his subconscious had been telling him was wrong. THIS Kim Possible was favoring the OTHER arm.

Which meant that THAT wasn't Kim Possible. And that probably wasn't Shego with her… Which meant…

She'd pulled a shell game on him.

######

"Kim, this is Wade. Ron wants to know if you have an ETA?"

"Five minutes," Kim subvocalized, hearing the words come out loud and clear inside her head… but in the voice she heard when watching herself on tape rather than the voice she normally heard when she spoke out loud… and with just the slightest of delays.

"Okay, that is too weird," She added normally. "Sorry Wade, just checking out the finalized mic implant. Doesn't Ron have his Ron-Com?"

"No, Yori's using it. Needed a pair for a last minute delivery."

"Gotcha," Kim looked over at Shego, then into the back seat at Will. "On that subject, Will's got his Du-Call now and we've got one spare here from the pair Betty was carrying. Given that it's night, we can probably get by with singles but… how is production going on batch two?"

"I'm only one person Kim. Your brothers have the boards and are assembling the projectors, but there's no way you'll have them for this run."

"Then we'll just have to hope it's enough," Kim acknowledged, trying not to let the frustration show in her voice. As much as she'd tried to control the situation, it seemed like they were still playing catch up. Not that they had much choice. The final simulations of what COULD happen if the dam was destroyed were nightmarish, but nearly as horrifying was what would happen if there was an attempt at an unorganized mass evacuation. There simply weren't enough roads leading out of the valley, and the ones that WERE there were way too treacherous… and then there was always the chance Junior would notice people fleeing and detonate the bombs prematurely. Betty would be spending most of the time while they were in flight secretly notifying and organizing as silent and orderly an evacuation as they could, but their best chance at keeping loss of life to a minimum was get there before the detonation and prevent it.

And that was a chance they had only because of Bonnie Rockwaller, Kim mused. Who they hadn't heard from since and might even already be…

No, she wouldn't think about it. She had to remain positive, to keep her mind on the best possible outcomes or she could lock up at just the moment when she had to make the right decision. There were way too many variables flying right now, and their best chance… pretty much their only chance… was to get in and out as quickly as they could, before any of the other forces arrayed against them could get in motion.

######

Camille put down her smart phone, a strange whirl of emotions whipping through her soul. She'd done it. She'd just given Hench all the details he needed. When and how the trap was going to happen, the placement of all the key players… everything.

And she'd never felt dirtier in her life. She'd never actually betrayed a customer before. Odd, how breaching her own personal set of ethics bothered her worse than offering up an innocent girl to a monster like Junior.

Now came the hard part. Pretending she didn't know anything, keeping up the pretense of working for Junior, until after he baited the trap itself with his announcement.

And then, when the moment came, sliding the knife into his back.

#####

Hench put down his phone and grinned. If this worked, he'd just saved his company AND his reputation. If not… well, he had a convenient scapegoat in Ms. Leon and that MIGHT buy him enough time to dig a deep enough hole to hide in.

He put the phone back to his ear and punched up the leader of his Go Team.

"Commander Cholla. Jack. Launch the Black Widows. Here are your strike coordinates…"

#####

"Global Rescue, all out!" Shego announced over the screeching of rubber as she slammed on the brakes and their SUV slid in a wide fish-tail curve until the driver side doors were almost flush with the front entry door to the hanger. She and Will… disguised as two Global Justice agents Kim knew as Hilton and Smart, were out the door in half a second, Kim lagging only because she had to go over the gear shift and steering wheel. By the time she was out, camo'd as Simpson again, Ron had already opened the door and the others were inside.

"Everything's ready, everyone's on board," Ron informed her as they raced through the building towards the waiting vehicle. To Shego: "I've checked everything as best I can, but you'll want to do your own pre-flight, right?"

"Yep," the currently not green but still sexy in her borrowed appearance ex-villain replied. "But as long as nobody's monkeyed with things too much it shouldn't take long."

"Hey, was that a monkey joke?"

"Focus, Ron," Kim felt the beginnings of a chuckle coming on despite the situation. People often wondered how Ron's Ron-ness hadn't driven her crazy during high school; she wondered how they couldn't see that the Ron-ness was part of what kept her from going crazy in the first place. "So what has the inflight catering arranged?"

"I'll tell you when your girlfriend can't hear me," the blonde man winked, appreciating the glare he got out of the hologramic image of Hilton covering Shego. "Trust me, the Ron-man's got you covered."

By now they were out of the hanger and running across the tarmac to the waiting Rescue One. Kim's adrenaline, already on a high, hit a new gear as she hit the access ramp. The volcano mission had only been a warm up, and even though the forces of nature had been against them, they hadn't had to worry about people with guns. This time…

But any worries she had were swept aside as she entered the main cabin and saw the surprise she'd been building during Shell Game.

To any outside observer, it would have seemed that Ron and Yori had been doing all the packing and the loading themselves. In truth, as their quick clinch was ample proof of, the two had barely seen each other for more than a few minutes at a time, as it had actually been either one or the other going out singly while the Kimmunicators disguised what their real payload would be.

"Ms. Possible," Agent Jose Mendoza, head of the 10 man Global Justice strike team, nodded as Kim dropped her disguise.

"Jose," She smiled. Shego had been right about Jose being the right man to back her up in a firefight, and his team all looked as tough and competent as he did. She wished they could have fit in the rest of his men, but they'd be staying behind to guard the hanger, Global Rescue and as a reserve force. Mostly, though, there had simply not been enough room left after they'd packed in the SECOND half of the surprise package.

"Yori. Hirotaka." Kim bowed. "You honor me."

"It is our honor to assist," Hirotaka replied, bowing back.

And the TWENTY black-clad Yamanouchi ninjas, all that had been in North America and able to make it to Middleton in time, bowed as well.

All of which was caught by the LAST two members of the team, although both were officially assigned non-combatant status.

"Lieutenant," Kim nodded to the female SWAT officer. "You'll keep her out of trouble?"

"She IS trouble," Lt. Ellis returned as her girlfriend continued filming. "But we'll stick with the hovercraft team. Right Cyn?"

Looking rather spectacular in her new Global Rescue uniform, Cyn's response was to snap off a handful of stills to go with the video. "Right Gay. Thanks for letting me come, Kim."

"Like I'm going to turn down help or free publicity?" Kim grinned just as Hilton/Shego came up the gangplank. The truth be told she'd had some reservations at first, but… Cyn had earned it and Kim was hoping one of her hunches would prove true.

"Everything checks out," the green again pilot announced as she retracted the entryway and slammed the hatch shut behind her… a two man job for most people, but Shego WAS Shego. "Will, you've got the co-seat. Princess, stop yakking and get your ass strapped in. Ditto for everyone else. We're going to be burning a new hole in the exosphere and the first thousand mile's are gonna be really bumpy!"

"Right," Kim seconded, already bucking herself into one of the quickly installed temporary shock-seats. "If you don't have a sick bag, you might want to grab one now, because our pilot is crazy."

"Crazy for you pumpkin," Came the voice from up front. "Anybody not strapped in or have to go to the bathroom? No? Good. Because we are GO!"

######

Brotherson stared at his monitor in disbelief as the Global Rescue vehicle took off in an explosion of light… had he had the audio switched on his remote camera, he was sure the sound would have been deafening as well. The surveillance cam had been an afterthought, something he'd paid a local contractor to install at the last minute, and the quality was nowhere near the standard he would have preferred but… That HADN'T been Kim and Shego, and yet it must have been. Who else would Shego even let touch her precious aircraft? He'd have to go back and double check who and what had been loaded in the craft, but at the moment the far bigger question was where in the hell were they going and why in such a hurry?

#####

The four Hypersonic transports lifted off from Henchco field at almost the same moment. Sitting in a shock seat in the lead vehicle, Commander John Q. Cholla went over his orders and wondered what he was missing. Each of the four HyperTrans under his command carried 24 para-assault troops plus their unit commander and enough field gear to start a full scale war. Their mission was to get in, neutralize any opposition and take out their prime target. If anybody or anything else got in their way… well, that was just too bad. Most of his men had been chafing under the restrictions Henchco put on their behavior, but now that they were wearing their non-standard camo uniforms, all of those rules were off. Except, of course, for the one rule Hench had been absolutely clear about…

Don't leave anybody behind who might be able to identify you.

Cholla's face contorted into a vicious grin he hadn't indulged in since being kicked out of his old mercenary group for "unnecessary roughness." He didn't have to read between the lines to know exactly what Hench had meant by that.

No survivors.

#######

Sue Donem looked at the information she'd just pulled from tap she'd put on the air controller's console. What in the hell was Domeniul Sangeroase de Gheata si Depresie? And why would Kim Possible be heading there?

Well, that wasn't something she was equipped to answer. And it's not what she was being paid for either.

What she WAS being paid for was the call she was about to make. And after that, there would be no more Sue Donem. In fact, it would be a good idea to leave the country for a while.

She wondered if Illya was still teaching ballet in Moscow? April had always had an eye for a fellow Dancer.

######

Brotherson put down his phone in a state of shock. HENCH knew where Possible was going to be? Before HE did? This was impossible but….

He pulled up the last information he had on Global Rescue One. Mapped out the trajectory. It matched.

No. NO!

He WOULDN'T let Hench cheat him! SOMEONE had to kill Possible before Hench did.

And he knew who could do it. He REALLY hadn't wanted to use the silver phones again, but… if he didn't act now, there wasn't going to be anybody near enough to beat Hench to Possible.

"Damn it," he swore and picked up the first unit. His entire game had just gone to hell, but he still had the winning pieces. He just had to redeploy them properly. Right.

######

Dash Demond was sweating like a pig as he ran up the entryway to SkyVixen. He'd had the furthest to come, of course, having been in Com Central when the silver phone had unexpectedly rung, but he usually had no trouble beating anyone except Crash. To his surprise, however, ALL of the others had beaten him even…

Holy crap.

"I suddenly realized how much time was wasted by actually getting dressed first," the completely naked Adrena Lynn grinned, her clothes still draped over her shoulder. Well, almost completely naked… she WAS wearing her combat belt and a knife sheath. And Sweet Jesus, Dash had NEVER seen so many scars in his life. She made his own battle-ravaged body look almost pristine in comparison.

So why was it such turn on?

"Don't just stand there gaping," Lynn ordered. "Strap in and let's see if this bitch is as fast as you say she is!"

#####

"Sam! Sam! Get a move on!"

"WHa.. what?" Sam babbled as light streamed into the room and his bunkmate Eric Jackson (a distant cousin, as it happened, which was probably the reason for the two men's great physical resemblance) made more wild gesticulations. Sam had the late guard shift and had been TRYING to catch a few z's, so pulling himself out of his slumbering stupor wasn't something his body was inclined to do naturally.

"I said get a move on Sam! We're rolling out! Gemini says everyone on the tarmac or he'll shoot the last two."

That got Sam up. On wobbly legs, but up. If there's one thing you didn't question while working for Gemini, it was a sentence that ended with the word 'shot.'

"Where're we going?"

"Not sure, the orders said cold weather gear… but it's got to be Possible! Gemini's got to have a lead on Possible!"

#####

"Sheldon!" Nanny Nane screamed as she batted the man's hand aside as he started to aim at the last two Henchmen running for the first hypersonic transport… the Jackson twins, she thought. "What have I told you about shooting your own men? And just what are you doing with that stupid little dog?"

Gemini looked like she'd just asked why he had a head. "But… Pepe goes everywhere with me!"

"And tells you what to do half the time, I imagine," The ex-Nanny from Hell swore, swiping the nasty little pup from Gemini's hands and plopping it into her enormous satchel purse alongside a generous helping of plastic explosives. "When you were five it was your blanket that gave you orders, and at seven it was your sister's Betsy Wetsy doll."

"Betsy Wetsy!" Sheldon giggled. He'd tricked his parents into thinking Betty had wanted it, but it had been his, ever since he saw her in the store…

"NO!" Nane yelled as Sheldon went for her bag. "This time you're going to lead your own men into battle and you're going to do it with some proper advice. Mine! Now be a good boy and if you kill Kim Possible, I'll let you have your PeePee back afterwards."

"It's Pepe!" Sheldon corrected.

"Not going by what he just did in my satchel, it isn't," Nane retorted. "You heard what I said. Now get onboard and act like a commander!"

Sheldon… no GEMINI stared after the woman's retreating back with hateful eyes. Now she had done it. Now she had gone too far. She'd embarrassed him in front of HIS rented men! And as soon as this mission was over, as soon as he had the head of Kim Possible, he was going to add a second head to his collection.

The head of Nanny Nane.

######

"The phone's ringing."

"I can hear it Tedsy."

"But… we should answer it. Seriously."

"If you even think about pulling out right now, I'll fry it off."

"Y… yes ma'am."

######

"The silver phone's ringing!" Jim Possible exclaimed in alarm as the image on the remote viewing screen started vibrating.

"Well don't just stand there," Tim scowled back as they worked from the temporary control center they'd built in the safe house. "Get a tracer running on it."

######

The sky in front of Shego was nothing but a blur, Kim noted. She wished she was sitting up there, watching the terrain fly past beneath them… or conversely, that Shego had time to come back to this hastily put together pow-wow. She really needed the woman's guile in addition to her own, but her lover was too occupied making sure that Will was 100% qualified to operate GR One just in case…

Kim tried to ignore that thought, what she would do without Shego and refocused back on the projected faces of Wade and Betty... and the subject she was supposed to be thinking about.

"We've started a story that there's a gas leak in the village directly below the dam," Dr. Director was saying. The local constables are moving people out house by house and taking them to high ground. Further down the valley we've got police organizing a real evacuation effort if things start looking bad, but we don't want to take a chance of anyone spilling to the media and possibly tipping Senior into setting the bombs off early."

"Any hope of local assist?"

"No, damnit. We're running into even more than the usual bureaucratic BS. The surrounding country's a candidate for the E.U., but they've been held off due to political instability… without going into too much detail, it's a powderkeg with four rival factions and tossing in military units from neighboring countries could set off something even worse than what we're trying to stop. Especially since we're already activating their equivalent of the National Guard to help the police with the evacs. That leaves the Red Cross, Global Justice… and by default, Global Rescue… as the only groups that have a free pass for fly-overs."

"And besides, any major troop movements would probably just provoke Junior anyway," Wade added. "Assuming they could even get in there in time. The area surrounding the glacier and dam is a tactical nightmare, all mountains and narrow valleys. I think your first instinct was right; a quick in and out to take out the bombs before they know we're there is the best tactic."

"Wait," Kim stopped, her mind grinding over something… "Wade? That kind of terrain's got to be hell for radio and TV signals. How hard would it be to jam everything for an area of… say… a five mile radius around the castle?"

"Urgh," Wade grunted. "We could DO it, maybe, if we redirected a satellite, but that wouldn't stop landline phones or internet. And according to these stats Senor Senior Sr. gave us, the castle has brand new fiberoptic and its own shielded microwave system."

"Why do I get the feeling that the hotel was just a cover for another lair?" Kim groaned. "Betty, is there a way to get the local media to play with us? Keep things quiet for a few hours so we can take more overt action without tipping Junior?"

"Hmmm," The one eyed woman's face was serious. "Honestly, they wouldn't do it for Global Justice. But…"

"But…?"

"They MIGHT do it for Kim Possible. If YOU ask, tell them it's a matter of life and death…" Betty shrugged. "You've built up a lot of good karma, Kim. People trust you."

"So you keep telling me," Kim grunted, her mind flashing back to their conversation earlier.

"_You do have ANOTHER ace up your sleeve,"_ Betty had said. "_One that I'm surprised you haven't figured out yet... given that you've already drawn on it a number of times. And it's really the most powerful weapon of all." _

"_Your greatest asset, __Kim__, is not this strange transitory power. It's the morals and values your parents taught you. I don't think you really realize how unique the environment that you were brought up in is. Your parents are amazing people to begin with, both incredibly talented, and genetics alone would have given you an incredible advantage. But your parents gave you much more than your mind and body. They set an example. They could have both focused on themselves... become incredibly rich...yet they chose to dedicate themselves to serving the greater good... saving lives and pushing the boundaries of mankind's knowledge. And as a result, they've raised three amazing children... children who WILL change the world. I don't need any gift to know that."_

_"And everything you've learned from them, Kim, you've taken to an even higher level. People trust you because they know you can be trusted. People follow you, because they know you're leading them in a better direction. And people love you, because they know you return that love unconditionally."_

"_THAT's your real ace in the hole, not this unreliable gift we share. Rely on yourself. Rely on who and what you are."  
_  
"So, you think that will hold true now that I've outed myself?" Kim queried, back in the current world.

"This is Europe, Kim. They couldn't care less who you sleep with."

"Okay," Kim agreed. She'd been looking forward to grabbing a few minutes of sleep, but this looked like it would take most of the flight. Still, as the old saying went, she could sleep when she was dead… and as she looked up and saw Cyn prepping her gear, another thought slid slyly into her head. "Let's give it a try. It just occurred to me that we have something we can offer them in exchange for a few hours of quiet."

#####

"What's the status on the front gate?" Camille asked with an exaggerated appearance of focus and attention to detail. The truth was that she was just going through the motions now, so to make herself look busy, she was walking about the castle randomly interviewing searchers.

"Nothing much, ma'am," the Henchman just coming in from guard duty shrugged. "With everyone on search detail, the only traffic we've had was that shipment of thermite for the glacier."

Camille froze. "What was that?"

"The thermite that Mister Senior wanted added. Ralph Emerson took it up in a forklift about half an hour ago."

######

"COULD this road BE any bumpier?" Bonnie growled from inside the wooden shipping crate as it rattled about on the fork-lift's flatbed. "How fast are you driving anyway?"

"Probably not fast enough," Ralph shouted back over the ferocious grinding of the gears, as the very not-off road vehicle slid dangerously about on the slushy length of frozen mud and gravel that was Castle Senior's excuse for a road. There's been a fresh coat of snow last night, so it was almost impossible to tell where the deepest potholes were, and he'd felt most of those even through the vehicles shocks, the well padded chair and his own generously padded ass. What is must be like in the bouncing crate, he didn't even want to know. "It all depends upon how long it takes them to figure out there's a fork-lift missing."

"Well stop for a second!" Bonnie screamed. "I've got to get out of this box!"

"It's not safe! If you're seen…"

"I'll have a broken neck or have been stabbed to death by all this crap bouncing around in here, so it won't matter!" the girl yelled and began kicking at the inside of the crate.

"Okay, okay!" Ralph gave in, bringing the vehicle to a halt. Hopping off, he grabbed the crowbar he'd purloined and walked over to pop the side from the shipping container.

Then stopped. Listened.

And almost fell over himself as he ran the rest of the way as fast as he could and started prying open the huge box with frantic urgency.

Bonnie's eyes watered and she blinked blindly as the bright light hit her eyes after hours in the secret passages and the crate, but she stuck out her hand and let him pull her to her feet from amidst the pile of arctic gear they'd stolen. Now that she was out, she could hear the same thing that Ralph heard.

Vehicles. A lot of them. Coming down the road behind them.

"Get your skis on," Ralph ordered redundantly, grabbing his own gear and racing back to the cab of the forklift. "I think it's safe to assume that they've already noticed."

"Yeah," Bonnie grunted, already halfway into her skis. They were of the cross-country variety rather than the downhill type she remembered having more experience with, but if there was one thing a Rockwaller COULD do well, she was sure, it was ski. Winter vacations in Vail and Aspen since she was five had made sure of that… and unlike so many of her friends, she didn't spend most of her time in the lodge screwing around. What was the point in fucking guys you didn't know, who you couldn't flaunt over your friends in class?

Hmm. Now that she thought about it like that, didn't that seem… a little shallow? And look where being the most popular girl in school had gotten her. Okay, the most 'dated' girl. What exactly had she been trying to prove, being open 24/7 to anything masculine whose name wasn't Stoppable or Barkin? And who had she been trying to prove it to?

"Grr!" She snarled, pushing herself to her feet as a certain red-headed image rose in her mind again. While the fact that her memories were trickling back was probably a good thing, the order in which they were returning was leaving a lot to be desired. She really wasn't liking the girl who had been Bonnie Rockwaller very much. That bitch had been seriously in denial.

To divert her attention, she watched as Ralph started the fork-lift again, wedging the controls with a piece of wood so the vehicle would continue down the road until it eventually crashed. As distractions went it was… less than satisfactory… but they were totally winging this now and she was impressed that the man had even thought of it. It seemed that not all guys were penis-controlled idiots after all.

######

"Please! Think of the money!"

"Again!"

"Seriously?"

"Seriously!"

######

"How much longer until we can set off the trees?" Junior asked, eyeing his appearance in the makeup mirror.

"Well, the sun goes down in about an hour…" Came the response from his nominal 'director' and head of photography.

"Then let's get to the vantage point and set up for the broadcast," Junior decided.

"But… uh…" the bothersome man protested. "You don't want to wait until… uh…"

"Until what?" Junior blinked in confusion.

"Well, until Ms. Leon and all your men are clear. They're driving down therer right now."

"And your point is?" Junior scowled. "They know what the timetable is. If they do not get clear, that is their problem."

######

"ETA?" Kim asked, even though she knew the answer.

"Forty minutes at max-plus," Shego replied tightly. "That'll give us about an hour before sunset to…" The green woman stopped as she saw Kim suddenly go vacant, staring emptily into space. "What? What is it?"

"We just screwed up big time," Kim gasped, snapping out of it. "Mountains, Shego, mountains!"

"What do you…" And then it hit Shego too. It was so simple. So obvious. And was about to be so deadly.

How could they have forgotten that the sun appears to set earlier when you're in a valley in the mountains?

"Okay," Shego growled. "Let's see if there's a max-plus-plus setting the engineers forgot to mention."

######

"What's the fastest way to the glacier?" Bonnie yelled as they broke through the trees into the first clearing.

"Hard to say," Ralph wheezed. Like every Henchmen, he'd had basic ski training, but cross country was one of the most physically demanding sports in the world, requiring peak perfection out of almost every major muscle group. Apparently there were a few of those he'd been neglecting while typing on the internet sending jokes to Sam. "If we were driving, I'd say over that crest but…"

"But we're not driving."

"Yeah. So my guess is that that stream bed will take us to the trees at the base of the glacier. It'll be almost all downhill, so we'll just have to watch for open holes in the ice and the bigger rocks under the snow."

"Um… just to be sure, you ARE talking about the trees that are going to go off before the main explosion?"

"Right. And from there there's the path we used to plant the explosives themselves."

Bonnie looked up at the sky and tried to figure out how long it would be until the sun set, then pushed the whole exercise aside as pointless anyway. Either they would make it, or they wouldn't…

"By the way," She said instead, "I know I can be a bit of a bitch, but I really…"

"Need to get moving," Ralph smiled, pretending to get his second wind. "Come on kid, the mushy stuff can wait, right?"

"Right, Bonnie agreed, pushing off with her poles. "Mushy stuff later. We've got a world to save."

######


	46. Chapter 46

_Author's Note: Whew. This one took a bit. That's only partially because of the Holiday bits I've popped up over the last two… A VISIT FROM KIM POSSIBLE and OVER MIDDLETON RIVER. I also was taking into account that there were so many elements going on in the last chapter… which was necessary to show where everyone was at that point in time (the moment of no return)... that it got a bit confusing for some. Thankfully, the focus is a little tighter in this chapter and Brotherson's musings contain a summary of the state of things (at least as far as he knows them.) What really pushed this one long, though, was the science, which I've had to do some careful research on. For those who're wondering what I'm talking about, you might want to YouTube the words Thermite and Ice together once you've read this chapter… or you can go to the links I've stuck at the bottom of my profile… turns out there's a Mythbusters ep on the same thing and that opened up some questions I had to resolve. The specs on the HALO dive are pushing the edge, but this IS Kim Possible and there HAVE been more extreme cases. And, as long as we're talking science, for those who've been wondering, GR One runs on hydrogen that it cracks from water. It can do this while in flight, but it can't make more fuel than it burns, so it DOES eventually have to stop and refuel. Finally, if you're a Tom Clancy fan, no insult meant or intended, but if you know the 'apostrophe' books, I imagine you'll understand when you get there. And yada yada, thanks for the reviews, cookies, etc. This chapter is already huge, so go start reading already. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Doctor Betty Director, Ron Stoppable, Yori, Bonnie Rockwaller, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior, Sr., Jack Hench, Big Daddy Brotherson, Adrena Lynn, Jim and Tim Possible (formerly known as the Tweebs,) Team Impossible (Dash Demond, Crash Cranstin and Burn Burman,) Hirotaka, Sheldon 'Gemini' Director, Pepe, Nanny Nane, Motor Ed, Mr. Barkin, the Yamanouchi ninja school and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Lt. Gay Ellis MAY be the property of Gerry Anderson and Century21, but she's not saying. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Ralph Emerson, Sam Jackson, Eric Jackson, Jose Mendoza and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 46

#####

"Unbelievable…" Big Daddy Brotherson swore, staring at his tracking data. The elegant game that he'd designed was in absolute shambles. Oh, he'd expected some things to go off track, but this… this was beyond anything he could have even imagined.

Currently Global Rescue One (which he was now absolutely positive contained game target Kim Possible,) four hypersonic transports belonging to Henchco (containing approximately a hundred of Henchco's best shock troops under the command of one John Q. Cholla,) the Team Impossible Hypersonic Helicopter SkyVixen (containing 'The K Team' and their employer Adrena Lynn,) and another set of hypersonic transports filled with WEE troops and commanded by (really) Nanny Nane and (officially) Sheldon "Gemini" Director, were all streaking on collision courses across the Atlantic towards a remote mountain Castle in Europe belonging to Senor Senior Sr., father of nominal game player Senor Senior Junior, who hadn't been heard from in several days, although his PHONE was in Greece. The police reports that Brotherson had started receiving showing that Junior's little 'hobby' had been discovered were a good indicator of the probable reason why the psychopathic man-boy had chosen to drop from sight rather than contacting the game partner Brotherson had picked for him, Jackie "The Jackal" Oakes, who was instead still working his day job as a greeter at the Egyptian Antiquities Market and Casino. Equally MIA were the team of Motor Ed and Electronique, who seemed to still be camped out in the middle of the desert. Finally, to make the whole thing even more confusing, it had all been set off by a tip from Camille Leon, who Brotherson had originally chosen as a partner for Adrena Lynn, but had never even been officially invited into the game yet had still somehow convinced Jack Hench (the actual target of the game, as opposed to Possible as the game's target,) that she knew when and where Possible would be most likely to be in just a few hours.

And, of course, the kicker was that Brotherson had just sunk a sizable percentage of his own reserve funds setting up a similar situation in South America and now it was likely that absolutely none of the time and money he'd invested there was even going to be used! Worse yet, the team… if that was the right word to use… who seemed to be in the best position to 'score' right now was the one sent by Hench himself! And if Hench succeeded, then Brotherson himself was going to have a lot of explaining to do to Mr. Wheeler.

Seriously, as the missing Motor Ed might say, what the hell?

So, after reviewing and re-reviewing the situation a half dozen time, Brotherson had finally decided to do the only sensible thing a man in his position could do.

He'd opened up three bags of Snickerdoodles (assorted flavors,) heated up a huge bowl of hot-wings, pulled a six pack of Middleton Lager ('we can't legally call it beer because the alcohol content's too high!') from the fridge and opened a fresh baggie of his favorite hemp derivative, courtesy of the Happy Mutantjauana Corp of Jamaica, the real source of all of DNAmy's financing. If he couldn't control the situation, he was damn well going to make himself comfortable watching how it all turned out. And who knows, maybe he could make a few bucks selling a transcript as a plot outline to Tom Clancy again.

######

"Bonnie! Down!" Ralph's voice came not a second to soon, as something whizzed over Bonnie's head, making a high pitched sound like an overstretched rubber band snapping. Two more followed before the fourth impacted on the rocks on the side of the stream bed about ten feet above their heads. Fortunately Bonnie checked her natural instinct to throw herself to the ground, as the ski's she was wearing could have caught, snapping her ankles or worse.

"Were those BULLETS?" She gasped, doing her best to fit behind the nearest boulder instead. Okay, it was a stupid question she realized; but despite everything else that had happened to her, being shot at represented a unique new level of threat!

"They're shooting from below!" Ralph non-answered, pointing down the incline they'd been traversing. Now that she squinted, way, way downstream, Bonnie could just barely discern the snow-covered shape of a bridge going over the snow-covered streambed, but Ralph was already pointing in the other direction, up the hill to their right. "We need to head for the woods on the other side of this slope! If we can get over the top, we can gain time while they're working up the stream!"

Of course, given that they were skiing through fresh snow, the exact way that they had gone was going to be totally obvious… but…

Another pair of bullets thrummed past. Way too close.

"Right!" Bonnie agreed, taking the lead as they 'shooshed' up the hill behind a raised ridge, walking/running in a herringbone pattern that was certain to have muscles Bonnie didn't even know she had complaining in the morning… assuming she lived that long. A quick glimpse behind showed that Ralph was right behind her, his lesser experience on skis being somewhat offset by his more powerful arms. But while his competence kept fooling her, the strained look on his face indicated that he couldn't keep this up much longer. He had to be close to her dad's age…

And that made her wonder if she'd ever seen any of her family ever again. How could Possible do this on a daily basis? Was the girl insane? Or was the crazy one Bonnie Rockwaller, who was trying to do something she had no real idea how to do?

#####

"Stop shooting you idiots!" Camille screamed, and if looks could kill, the two henchmen who had set their rifles up on the bridge would have dropped dead from toxic shock. "Senior wants the girl ALIVE! And if you'd just let them get a little closer we could have had a perfect ambush!"

"Aagh!" She snarled, finally reduced to incoherency by the sheer incompetence of some of the Henchmen. What were the odds, Camille wondered, that Rockwaller had somehow teamed up with one of the rare ones who had a functioning brain? As soon as she'd heard that someone was heading up to the glacier, she knew something had to be up. With sunset and the detonation of the treeline so imminent, only a fool or someone with a deathwish would have headed this way. (Exactly what that made her, she didn't want to think about, but at least it kept her away from Junior.)

It had only taken a few more seconds to identify that 'Ralph' was the same Ralph that had been in her initial search team, and who, it seemed, had somehow been with several other search groups as well. Ralph Emerson, a highly rated employee who tended to be among the handful of Henchmen who were ever specifically requested for assignments… and also the father of a daughter only two years younger than Rockwaller. She could put those pieces together easily enough. What she hadn't expected was for the odd pairing to have the brilliance to rig the fork-lift running down the road as a decoy while they took off on skis that they had already stolen. Her men had lost a lot of time when they had to backtrack and find the spot where the two had actually gone off the road, but fortunately Camille's smart phone was able to bring up GiggleMaps and she had guessed from the satellite pictures that they might take the stream bed as an express route.

As to what the two fugitives were intending to do… coupling Emerson's experience with explosives and Junior's advice that Rockwaller thought she was Kim Possible made it obvious that they were planning to stop the bombs from going off… something that would actually have left Camille feeling perversely pleased had they succeeded except for the fact that those explosions were what was necessary to attract the real Possible in the first place.

Thus it was that, even knowing that Junior would probably start setting off bombs in the near future, Camille found herself still tracking the girl she really didn't want to give to him in order to further his plot that she had already betrayed herself. The last thing she could afford was to set off a major confrontation between Hench and the Seniors and NOT have Kim Possible's body as a prize.

"All right," She ordered once she had finally got her emotions under control. "It LOOKS like they're heading for the glacier itself, but that could be a dodge. I want a team of ten on skis to go up that stream bed and follow them. The rest will drive to the base of the glacier and try to cut them off. Is that SIMPLE enough for you to understand?"

Two dozen faces looked back at her in slack-jawed confusion. God, had she somehow gotten the stupidest Henchmen out of the entire lot? Oh, that's right, of course she had! Because anyone with common sense wouldn't be caught dead down here in the trees knowing that Junior was getting ready to set off the first line of bombs!

"You ten! Go!" she screamed, pointing at the hillside where Rockwaller and Emerson had disappeared. "The rest in the cars! I'm driving the lead!"

'_This gig is going to be the death of me,' _She thought as she stalked towards the first off the four off-road vehicles Junior had bought on the cheap, a half-track truck of some kind that seemed to be been held together with mending plates and bondo putty. And for not the first time, she wondered why she hadn't stuck to being a high-class call girl specializing in celebrity impersonations. At least then she'd been paid to take it up the ass, AND got to sleep in in the morning.

######

"It looks like we'll be cutting seventy minutes off our total flight time," Shego announced over her shoulder. "You don't want to know how hot our exterior hull is right now and we're burning fuel way too fast… but I could probably squeeze even more out of her if we weren't so loaded. Those upgrades your brothers and dad made really smoothed out a lot of the air/fuel mix issues."

"Good," Kim smiled with the first feeling of relief since she'd realized their goof with the timing. It was STILL going to be tight, but now, at least, there was a possibility that they could pull the whole thing off. "Wade, have my brothers got the eyes in the sky in place yet?"

"VERY covertly, yes," Wade confirmed, from the window at the top right of the tactical display that Kim, Ron, Yori, Jose, Hirotaka and Stevens, the ace GJ Hovercraft pilot they'd borrowed, were viewing. Like Wade, Dr. Director was visible in a window at the top left, and Shego and Will, who were also viewing the same thing on their heads up displays, occupied the bottom left and right windows. As Wade continued to speak, the old image they'd been using as a placeholder was replaced by a newer, crisper version… the most obvious change being that the ground was now completely covered with snow. "And I'd be real careful who you let know. We had to tap into some D.O.D. birds that aren't even supposed to exist, and the angle's pretty extreme, but what I can tell you for sure is that we've got people moving out onto the ice."

"On the glacier itself?" Kim frowned.

"Yeah, with vehicles… gotta be Junior's people guarding the bombs."

"How much time till the sun sets?"

"Forty five minutes-ish, depending on where you're standing. Best case scenario, you'll have maybe twenty minutes."

"I don't suppose you know how many bombs?" Shego butted in.

Wade's brows creased. "That's the funny part. They don't look like they've tried to hide them all that hard, so unless they're being sneaky and using decoys, it looks like six major emplacements. That does tie in with the information and quantities that Senor Senior showed being charged on from his credit cards, so I'm inclined to think that's right though. It's still nasty since we know they're using a magnesium thermite base, and you know what that can do on ice, but if we can take out at least three of them, that should lessen the total damage to the glacier. If we can keep it at least partially intact, the trees along the shore will act as a buffer for what gets through, and that'll keep the dam out of immediate danger."

"Immediate being the operative word." Dr. Director commented from her side window. "We got a team of engineers getting ready to open as many of the flood releases as we can if the water level starts rising… but that kind of current is going to pull in any ice that much further."

"Okay," Kim kept her game face on. "Unless someone has a better idea, I think we should go with a four-way division/insertion. Until we know for sure what kind of long range detection Junior's got set up, GR One will come in as high as we can and Shego and I will HALO jump in over the woods at the base of the glacier using the camo-chute plan, then cover the rest of the distance on rocket ski.

"Will, once Shego and I are down," Kim continued, "You'll launch the hovercraft. Stevens, you'll be stealth dropping a ninja team on the other side of the castle… here. Yori, that'll be you, Hirotaka and five others of your choosing. Your primary mission is to infiltrate and locate any radar, lidar or air to ground defenses, but see if you can find any sign of Bonnie as a secondary. If you do find her and can pull her out without endangering yourselves, do it… but keep in mind that she may be part of a trap."

"It will be our honor," Hirotaka nodded tensely. He'd dated Bonnie for a brief period and had hoped to make her re-acquaintance... but this is not how he'd anticipated they might be reunited.

"Finally, Will, once Yori and Hirotaka have got the lay of the land and we know there are no major gotchas waiting for us, I want you come down FAST, drop your cloaking just long enough to pull everyone's attention, and place Jose and his team here just off the edge of the glacier. Jose, you'll need to set up a cross fire, get those troops away from the cliffs enough that Shego and I can scope out the bombs. If we can defuse them, we're golden. Otherwise… well, we'll get to that."

"As for Ron and the rest of the ninjas," Kim addressed the last remaining group, "You'll stay on GR One until we see how everything's going down. You'll be the main force to take out the castle itself, but I want you handy as a reserve in case things get messy before that."

"Which they will," Ron muttered under his breath, then realized he'd spoken out loud. "Sorry, I know, you'll probably need the monkey powers but you don't know just where yet."

"Right. Worse case scenario, I may need you to see if you can help with the bombs. Which brings us to what Shego and I will be doing. If we can't defuse all of Junior's bombs, we'll be setting off our own instead."

There was a bit of alarm at that, at least from those who hadn't been previously briefed.

Kim shook her head with a smile. "No, it's not quite as crazy as it sounds. One or two detonations probably won't loosen the ice enough for the whole thing to come down. From what I can see in these photos, it looks like all they did was pack a lot of thermite at the base. For this to actually knock the wall free, it would have to undercut the main ice pack… which all of them going off together would do. However, if we do it right, our sims show that the collapsed ice from a series of smaller explosions will actually force the majority of the blast AWAY from the main glacial mass and decrease the risk of a total structural failure."

"In the meantime, Shego's plasma and our GR suits will protect us from the heat, and we think we can use the plasma to deflect a little more of the blast away from the glacier. And if Ron's up here… and we blow them one by one, we think he can help channel the blast force away as well."

"There are a lot of 'we thinks' in there Kim," Will frowned.

"Yes. Yes, there are. Which is why I want everyone to stay off of the top of glacier, okay? I don't want to have to worry about any of our people being on it if the thing does go."

No comment was made about the fact that if it went, Kim and Shego would be under it.

######

"Oh yes, that's a nice view," Junior acknowledged as he looked at the shot the camera operator had composed. It was a wide shot that clearly showed the long row of trees surrounding the lake in the background, while in the foreground, on the overlook they'd chosen for the shot, the electronic board that would send the wireless detonation signals was prominently displayed. Junior himself stood next to the board and the pyrotechnics person, who as a former roadie with limited real demolitions experience, was clearly looking antsy.

"But don't you think I should be a little bigger in the frame?" Junior continued. The answer, clearly, was SUPPOSED to be 'Yes.'

The cinematographer… who had actually once been quite competent before a drug addiction had led him on a spiraling downward path from TV to porn to some exceptionally graphic and not always consensual bondage videos… looked at the 'director,' whose prior experience before joining Junior's band had devolved down a similar path ending with so called 'crush' videos.

"Um, we thought the idea was that they could see the trees go up," The director finally managed. "They can't do that if you're taking up most of the frame."

"Oh," Junior looked perturbed. "But I think I would look more dramatic in a close up."

"Well…" The director was fumbling now. This made no sense, given that Junior intended to wear a mask for the public version of the video, but frankly, whatever Junior wanted him to do, he'd do it. However, he'd seen enough of the crazed man-boy's thought processes by now to know that Senior might still blame him if things didn't work out, even if what he'd been doing was Senior Jr.'s own idea. So, the only safe course would be to humor him while still shooting what he knew would really be needed.

"How about we do some separate close ups, and then we can cut them in afterwards?" He proposed diplomatically.

"Hmmm…." Junior made a big show of giving it a thought. "I suppose that is fine. But I want to change something else also."

The whole crew, all surviving five of them, groaned inwardly. This was never good.

"I am thinking," Junior stated, "That this man takes up too much of the picture. I will push the detonation key myself. He grinned broadly. "That will make it much more dramatic."

######

"Damn it!" Bonnie swore. They'd come to the edge of the woods just above the south end of the glacier and they KNEW there was a team in pursuit. They'd gained a little more ground when they'd found an especially thick grouping of evergreens, where the needles covering the snow made it hard to tell exactly where they'd been. But it was obvious that their pursuers knew exactly where they were heading. Because there, below them, across the top of the glacier and between them and their goal, were several of the decrepit old vehicles she recognized from Castle Senior and a dozen plus armed Henchmen.

She turned and looked at Ralph, and knew from his lined face that he didn't have another run left in him. But he was the one who knew about explosives.

"Do you think…" Bonnie said carefully. "If I drew them away, that you could defuse those bombs?"

"Could I?" Ralph's face grew dark. "Maybe. Yes, I suppose I could IF I had enough time but… But I can't let you…"

"There's no other way, Ralph. If they're going to be out there like… um… mallcops, someone has to play the part of the apparent shoplifter to draw them away while the other shoves the candy in her purse."

"You know," Ralph raised an eyebrow. "That's an awfully specific example to pull out of thin air. Are you sure you're a good girl?"

"Let's say that my sisters were a really bad influence and leave it that," Bonnie replied with a blush. "And I felt so guilty I couldn't eat any of it anyway."

"Gotcha. Like I'm one to throw stones. But I'm still hoping the first plan will work out."

"Which is?"

"Hoping Kim Possible will show up in time to save our asses."

#######

"And now that you have seen I am serious, I am challenging you, Kim Possible!" Junior over-emoted, wearing the black cloth mask that he thought would disguise his identity over the same outfit he'd worn in public a dozen time, while taking no care at all to change his voice. "In just a few hours I will detonate the second set of charges and the entire… Glacier will collapse! Unless you come to face me, woman, thousands of people will die!" With a huge melodramatic sweep of his hand, he punched the button that detonated the explosives.

Except he didn't, of course. Not quite trusting Junior to NOT set off the explosives prematurely, the technician had taken the precaution of disconnecting the board.

"That was great!" the director lied. "Do you want to look at the footage, Mister Senior?"

Did Junior want to look at video of himself? Of course, the answer was always yes. But that was something the director had taken into account, as now they could stop doing pointless cover takes… it wasn't like rehearsal made Junior any better… and the explosives guy could get his board back in working order.

######

"We're coming in over the glacier now," Will announced, his voice thin and tinny through the plastic breathing mask he was wearing. Although it covered what was probably a very frowning expression, his eyes alone gave away the fact that he felt extremely uncomfortable sitting in Shego's normal pilot's seat. He'd been training in the sims but had less than a dozen hours behind the stick of GR One. Of course, except for Shego and maybe one or two test pilots, that was more than anyone else in the world… and while he WAS going to be pulling off some fancy aerobatics, there was no Mach plus action planned for the rest of the engagement.

In fact, at the moment, the hypersonic craft was practically stalled, creeping forward to place Kim and Shego in optimum position for their jump. The fact that GR One hadn't been specifically designed for HALO jumps didn't help, which is why he… and everyone else still in the cabin… was wearing a mask. They'd let the atmosphere slowly bleed out as much as they could within safety limits to minimize the shock in case something went wrong and they lost cabin pressure. That was just being safe, however. Kim and Shego, on the other hand, had been wearing the jump helmets that attached seamlessly to their incredible GR Uniforms for the last twenty minutes, flushing all the nitrogen from their systems, and for the last six minutes they'd been standing inside the Portable High-Altitude Airlock Rescue tunnel that had been created by the Twins and Kim's father. Besides having yet another of the unfortunate acronyms the Possible twins seemed to delight in, PHAART, the device was still VERY much in the testing phase, but had been created as a way to dock two high-speed aircraft for emergency evacuations in flight. As such, it should be able to keep its seal for the tandem High Altitude, Low Opening parachute jump. But should was not the same as would, hence the reason everyone else had a good grip on something solid. There was always the chance that the explosive decompression in the airlock could rupture the untested inner seals, in which case…

Well, things would be getting rather windy.

But not as windy as it would for Kim and Shego. They'd be freefalling an incredible distance… 40,000 ft or nearly 8 miles… while attempting to hit a target the size of a dozen city blocks. All while carrying, under their parachutes, full gearpacks that included explosive charges, folding rocket skis and most amazing of all, folding blast shields similar to those used by bomb disposal units.

Just a day in the life of Kim Possible.

The part that really boggled Will's mind, was that, except for the HALO helmets, these weren't even items that had been custom designed. They'd already been lying around and had been quite well field tested… the ski's by Wade and Kim, while the shields… well, apparently Kim's brothers were a little bit fixated on pyrotechnics.

"Weather sims?" Kim asked, her voice perfectly clear over the radio thanks to her implant.

"Looks optimum in eight seconds," Wade's voice replied. "Seven. Six. Five. Four."

"Open the hatch Shego!" Kim's voice was confident and strong, even if the rise in volume did indicate her growing excitement.

The green woman's muscles flexed and the electronic door to the world's longest first step slid open. The wind ripping into the room almost picked Kim up off the floor, but the seals back to the main cabin held. That was one potential disaster avoided.

"Two! One!"

"Go!" Kim barked, grabbing Shego tightly

"Yo Go!" Shego yelled as she and Kim bailed out in a single motion, their bodies held together by several thick canvas straps. That was definitely NOTthe textbook way to do a HALO jump, but most HALO jumpers weren't trying to achieve the degree of precision these two were.

And then the hatch slammed shut. Will didn't even remember hitting the 'close' button, but he obviously had.

"Right!" Will snapped, now the nominal voice of command. The mission plan was all laid out of course, but there were always things that could happen. "Hovercraft and Strike teams, get ready. I'm starting the loop around!"

And even though Shego and Kim were on their way, they still had a long, long way to fall.

#######

"Targeting on, 30%," Kim ordered subvocally and the head's up overlay in her helmet snapped on, displaying the area they intended to land as a live satellite image with animated graphics showing optimum sub-targets… mostly large clearings. She knew that Shego was seeing something similar, though the green woman had never been as comfortable looking at what was essentially an out of synch double exposure over the real world, preferring an inset window in the upper corner of her visor… though at the moment, her eyes seemed to be focused on the woman her arms were still tightly wrapped around. Given the green woman's greater strength, they'd agreed that her job would be keeping them together while Kim would handle roll, pitch and yaw. In retrospect, however, she realized that Shego's willingness to accept this arrangement may have had a lot to do with the fact that her hands were semi-free to explore Kim's backside in the process.

"Ahem."

"Hey, if this is what a girl has to do to get a few minutes alone with you, Princess, it's what she has to do."

"Uh huh," Kim giggled. "And is this girl thinking what I'm thinking she's thinking?"

"Um… be advised that you are NOT as alone as you think you are," Ron's voice cut in over the radio.

"And you could get some NASTY frostbite if you're talking about what we think you're talking about," Will added.

"Oh darn," Shego's grin was clearly visible through the tinted glass of her helmet. "And here I thought I was going to get lucky."

"Save your luck for the insertion," Will chided, then realized what he'd just said. "Or, uh… whatever…." Kim could hear laughter in GR One's cabin behind him. "Um… Oh, you know what I meant."

"Don't worry, Will," Kim replied… almost, but not quite, taking pity on the poor stiff. At some point the man was going to have to learn how to bend a little. "We'll try to stick it for you. The landing, I mean."

Of course, the entire time they'd been talking, Kim had been using her arms like wings to guide them ever closer to their goal. The real tricky bit, though, would come when it came time to open their chutes, because they were going to try something they'd never tried before.

The idea, itself, was simple. Rather than using their Kimmunicator's holo functions to disguise each other, they were going to disguise their PARACHUTES… as the sky behind them. It wasn't going to be 100 percent perfect, and the odds were that anyone looking directly at them would seen a "Predator" type of rippling effect, but the only things that would be easily visible would be the silhouettes of Kim and Shego themselves.

It was simple. It was brilliant. But what no one knew was that their entire approach plan had been based on a flawed assumption that came from a critical piece of missing information. When Ralph had sent his information, he'd only mentioned explosives, the glacier and the word sunset… what he'd neglected to include was that it was actually the TREES that were going to go up at sunset.

The very trees that Kim and Shego were going to be depending upon for cover… and that they were currently hurtling directly toward.

######

"Damn it Ralph! We can't wait any longer," Bonnie insisted. "I'm going!"

"But…!" Ralph began but even as he started to protest, Bonnie was already skiing out into the open at breakneck speed! Damn the girl! Ralph's heart plummeted as he saw her red hair catch the daylight like a blaze of flame! She couldn't do this! She couldn't!

Except she just had. And if tried to follow her now, he'd only succeed in making her sacrifice pointless! He felt the tears come as he saw the watchers on the ice spot her. How could they miss? She was trying to attract their attention!

And as they started to give chase, he knew what he had to do. He'd failed to keep her safe and now she was risking everything to give him one last chance to undo the mess he'd help make.

Maybe he could at least give her death meaning.

######

"It's her! It's her!" The henchman was screaming.

"What?" Camille snapped, her head swiveling around. "Where? WHO?"

"The girl!" Now more Henchman were taking up the call. "There she goes!"

And then Camille saw her, skiing away on the ice. 'No, this is all wrong,' Camille thought, 'Why would she be over there? Why would she be going that way?'

"Get back here you idiots!" She screamed as half her men and two of her cars took off in pursuit. "It's a trick!"

#######

As it happened, two thousand feet straight over Camille's head, Kim was attempting to do a trick of her own. She and Shego had finally broken physical contact and were falling with a separation of about 50 feet as they pulled their ripcords, sending their cruciform-shaped ATPS (Advanced Tactical Parachute System) canopies spiraling upwards. With the flawless instinctive precision that they were learning to bring to everything they did in tandem, they snapped their holo-fields up at almost the same millisecond. It was an extraordinarily unnerving moment, because while no one on the ground could theoretically see their chutes, the fact was that neither Kim nor Shego could no longer see them either! It was as if they were being held aloft by a series of ropes and cables that extended up about 15 feet, then simply ceased to exist!

Fortunately, the familiar pressure of the underside of her harness in certain places a lady didn't mention were enough to tell Kim that her chute HAD deployed properly, and looking over at Shego, she saw her lover's broad thumb's up sign. Good. Another potential disaster avoided.

And as she looked down, directly over the patch of trees that had been their original target, it looked like everything else was going right.

So why did she keep having this nagging feeling that she needed to be ready for… something…?

#######

By the rarest of chances, the cinematographer just happened to be looking at the monitor as Bonnie broke out of the tree line. "Hey! Hey! There she is!"

"What? Who?" Exclaimed the director and Junior at the same time!

"Kim!"

"Kim Possible?" Junior added, thoroughly confused

"No Her!" The camera operator, who'd never known Bonnie by any other name than Kim. "Kim! OUR Kim!"

"Let me see!" Junior demanded, still not understanding and reaching for the camera!

"No! Don't move anything! Look at the monitor!" the operator yelled.

"It's too small!" Junior swore, stepping past the director towards the edge of the outlook to peer towards the trees. Of course, in doing so, he collided directly with the now live pyroboard.

Where his hand bumped into the now-live button.

"oops." Said Senor Senior Junior.

And on the plain down below him, the fires of hell erupted.

######

"Oh my God!" Ron screamed!

Even from the height they were looking down from, the explosion was huge, a mountain of flame the length of twenty city blocks and a dozen wide that blazed into being as thousands of trees suddenly and impossibly burst simultaneously into flame! And the explosion was just barely getting started! The fact that the crude bombs had been sitting out overnight in sub-freezing temperatures (in direct contradiction to the instructions on the labels,) made things a hundred times worse, as did the fact that the thermite involved was actually a mixture of aluminum iron and magnesium, AND, as Satan's last little bonus, the fact that they were detonating on trees covered with a coat of fresh fallen snow and ice! Basic chemical reactions converted what was 'simply' a few hundred smaller bombs going off into a superfueled detonation; the 2000+ degree Fahrenheit ignition of the combustible metal explosives causing the snow and ice to instantly sublimate into steam, atomizing the burning metals and even separating a portion of the water itself into its component elements, oxygen and hydrogen! The explosive force of the reaction was therefore magnified exponentially… the trees didn't just burn, they didn't just explode… many of them simply vaporized… and even more were blown in fragments in every direction, as if a giant container of hot coals had literally been dumped across the entire landscape! This wasn't just a fire, it wasn't even just a forest fire… it was like a magnesium flare the size of a dozen shopping malls.

And while the initial flash of the incendiary nightmare was blinding, the scope of the disaster was so wide that no one on GR One needed to be able to see to know for sure was it was directly beneath Kim and Shego's chutes!

######

Camille screamed as the entire horizon vanished into a single unified wall of fire, then the searing heat of the shock wave hit her. It was like trying to breathe inside an oven! What the hell? What had that idiot Junior done?

But then she realized, that, for once, her idiotic henchmen had actually had a better idea before she had, and she joined them in running as fast as she could from the top of the glacier before anything ELSE could go wrong!

######

If they'd been a thousand feet higher they could have skirted around it, but they'd already fallen too far by the time the blast hit! Now they were dropping literally into the center of the maelstrom, but this is why Kim and Shego had dropped and no one else. Because what would have been disaster for anybody else was only another obstacle to overcome. Especially given that one of them was essentially fire-proof. Now it was up to the burnable one to get to her lover's protection.

"Shego! Drop catch!" Kim yelled over her internal mic, shutting the hologram that had disguised her chute down to semi-transparency… the odds of anyone being able to notice it above all the fire and flame was minimal but she needed SOME visibility in order to control the chute well enough to maneuver. As the impossibly bright fires surged up towards her from below, she reached up as high up on the ropes of her chute she could, bracing her arms and kicking her legs… back… forth… using her tremendous upper body strength to hold the frame of the cables solid so that her entire chute was forced to rock in response. Back and forth, like a child on a swing set. 40 degrees. 55 degrees.

Meanwhile Shego was moving as well, dropping faster than Kim, pulling past her… underneath… turning… they'd done this before, in the gym, screwing around…

As Kim's rocking hit 70 degrees, the edges of her chute began to ripple on the edge of collapse. Fortunately it was on the back swing and she came back through the final surge forward, she popped the quick releases on her harness… sending her flying forward, chute-less, like a trapeze artist towards the waiting Shego. Her path was perfect until… damn it… a rising wave of scalding heat caught the underside of Shego's chute, thrusting her upwards! The green woman's eyes widened in terror as she saw instantly that Kim was going to pass too low…

But no! Shego fired a ball of plasma upwards, punching a hole in her own chute… now she was dropping faster and somehow she timed it just right! Kim slammed into her like a human cannon ball and from the percussive grunt, Shego knew that Dr. Possible's work quick healing her daughter's ribs had probably been in vain. On the other hand, any other pair of people could have been stunned senseless by the impact, but Shego's arms flew out and latched around Kim in a death grip. Astoundingly, the grip was returned and Shego found herself looking into Kim's eyes as the woman nestled into position as the first flash wave of heat and sparks engulfed them!

"We need to drop on the Glacier side!" Kim yelled over the whistling hell wind that slammed into them from below. Then straight into the flames they fell, but as the first fingers began to lick their fireproof Global Rescue uniforms, Shego screamed a yell of defiance and burst into flame, engulfing both herself and Kim in a sphere of protective plasma.

And just in time, as the fireproofing of Shego's chute started to fail and the burning canopy rapidly began to lose its ability to create drag and lift as huge holes began to form across its now visible surface.

"Straps!" Shego ordered, her arms still holding Kim in a deathgrip as they hit the ground at five times the normal force. There was a snapping sound that Shego didn't want to think about, but she kept her balance, ignoring the pain in her right leg as she absorbed the speed of landing by racing through the maze of burning timber. At the same time she was being pulled backwards by the now burning parachute. But Kim had cut the straps loose and the drag was gone. Two problems down, but now they were standing in the middle of the inferno!

God, it was WORSE than the lava! At least the free oxygen and hydrogen had been consumed by the initial flash, but the half-ash corpses of burning trees blocked their path in every direction, many of which had already collapsed or, worse, collapsed halfway, leaning against other burning trees in immediate danger of falling further. Between the smoke and the flaming brands, some as high as a hundred feet overhead, visibility was zero… unless what you wanted to see was burning trees. And the sound… it was like being a inside a pan of frying bacon, the pop-pop-pop of exploding pitch and sap, of collapsing limbs and… bizarrely… icicles that hadn't quite melted yet falling into the flame in hissing gouts of steam! Within seconds Kim knew Shego was as lost as she was, and the oxygen in the HALO packs was running desperately low!

"Will!" Kim ordered via her internal mic. "We need directions towards the glacier! Now! Look for clearings!"

"Left! 60 degrees! Go forward twenty feet!" Came the immediate response. No stupid questions like "are you all right?" just prompt, by the book instructions.

Still in Shego's arms, Kim pointed the indicated direction, translating Will's commands into easy to follow motions. They couldn't hear each other… even through the helmets, the roar of the trees drowned out everything else. If it wasn't for the internal speaker in her ear, Kim wouldn't have been able to hear Will at all.

"No! To your right! 10 degrees! Twelve feet." Somehow Shego never lost her footing, never stumbled. The woman was impossible! Unreal! Kim hugged her even tighter as, moving as fast as they could, they finally broke their way free of the fire!

Only then did the green hero collapse, rolling into a bank of snow as she did so that she took most of the impact on her shoulders with a loud scream of "Fuck!" It was only then, after staggering to her own feet, that Kim realized that Shego had made the entire desperate run with a badly broken leg!

"Set it!" Shego growled though the pain, biting on the sleeve of her own glove as Kim grabbed the crooked limb and pulled it back into place with a sickening crunch that she could hear through her own spinal column. It would be days before her quick-healing ability could completely repair the shattered bone, but if it was allowed to even begin to heal crookedly, it would require major surgery to go in and re-break and reset the rejoined bones back in the right position. She'd been through that twice before and had no interest in going through that again.

"What kind of pain killer do you want?" Kim demanded, having already opened the first aid kit to pull out a hybrid splint. The brainchild of Mrs. Dr. Possible by way of the twins, it was inflated with air to hold a basic shape and conform, then became as rigid as fiberglass when a catalyst was squirted into the epoxy-like inner liner.

"Codeine, all you can spare," Shego grunted, watching Kim pop two for herself… she'd forgotten about Princess' ribs… then hand the rest of the bag to her. Shego downed about twenty. If Kim's resistance to pain killers was high, the green woman's was literally astronomical, but by the time her girlfriend had finished placing the splint, the pain had receded to what was, for her, an acceptable level. All the while Kim had been making tactical updates with the other teams. A broken leg and some ribs weren't so bad… at least in Kim's opinion… as to abort the current plan. Belatedly, she remembered to ask Shego about that as she was unfolding their skis.

"You CAN still ski, can't you?"

"Of course I can ski," Shego grimaced, pulling herself to her feet. "Hell, the last time I broke my leg was skiing too, so this way I'm ahead of the game."

"Okay," Kim's face was taut, but set with determination. "At least after this, no one's likely to be expecting someone to be coming from this direction."


	47. Chapter 47

_Author's Note: Gah! Has it really been a week since I last updated this? I'm afraid I let myself get a little distracted writing __**KiGoWocky- aka The Hunting of the Smirk**__ and the second chapter of __**The Slash Writers Guide to Better KiGo**__, (not to mention my two Holiday KiGo specials,) then real work reared it's ugly head and… well, that job, while very exciting as it happens to be on a VERY KP-ish project… took up more brain space and then… horror of horrors… there have been all these Christmas Parties, darn them! But okay, all that horrible having fun stuff is almost over, so we can get back to the wonderful world of KiGo. As my special Xmas gift to all, I DIDN'T end this one on one of the worst cliffhangers I've devised yet… you'll know it when you get there… and opted to end on… hey, why am I telling you this now? Read the damn story! Thanks to all those who've reviewed and faved and I'll be back in a day or three with the next installment. Promise! __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Yori, Bonnie Rockwaller, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Jack Hench, Adrena Lynn, Jim and Tim Possible (formerly known as the Tweebs,) Team Impossible (Dash Demond, Crash Cranstin and Burn Burman,) Sheldon 'Gemini' Director, Pepe, Nanny Nane, Motor Ed, the Yamanouchi ninja school and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Lt. Gay Ellis MAY be the property of Gerry Anderson and Century21, but she's not saying. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Ralph Emerson, Sam Jackson, Eric Jackson, Jose Mendoza and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 47

#####

Junior stood there, watching the first half of his plan go up in flames. No… wait, he didn't HAVE to show himself detonating the explosion, just take credit for it. Surely that would be enough to bring Kim Possible still?

"Start the camera again!" He ordered. "We need to do another take, with the trees already burning!"

"Right!" his director nodded enthusiastically, since even though the entire fiasco had been Junior's fault, the odds of him actually taking the blame for it were still only 50/50. "Chuck, get the camera rolling again and we'll wing it."

"Okay," The camera operator agreed, but do you want to wait for the people on the ice to get out of the shot?"

"What people?" Junior and the director asked simultaneously.

"Uh… the one's who just came out of the woods," Chuck replied innocently. "They're ours, right?"

Junior peered at the monitor and did a double take. That red hair… Rockwaller?

"Zoom in!" He ordered.

And his jaw almost hit the floor. It wasn't possible… except it WAS Possible! And that other one was Shego!

But how…

The pieces came together in Junior's head. Rockwaller! Somehow she'd got a message through to Possible… which meant…

#####

"What do you mean, TURN AROUND?" Camille screamed into her communicator. "You just set the goddamned woods on fire while WE were down there! You think anyone here is willing to go back on the ice where the BIG bombs are after that?"

"But it's Possible!" Junior insisted. "With Shego! They came out of the woods right after they caught fire!"

"What?" Camille gasped. "But…" The sequence of events fell into place for her as well. In the time since Rockwaller escaped, there'd been more than enough time for…

Oh hell! Unless she intervened, Junior was going to get Possible and Hench's men were going to be arrive too late!

This was going to be dicey, but she had to play out the hand she was given. Can't let Junior suspect…

"Right!" She ordered. "But I can't do it with the men and gear I have left. Send me everybody you can spare!"

Maybe… just maybe… she could keep Junior's men running into each other until Hench's crew arrived. And then… well, Hench could always replace the ones he lost in the crossfire, couldn't he… right?

######

Kim watched anxiously as Shego used the tips of her collapsible ski poles to trigger the rocket-boosters located just behind the clamp that held her boot in place. There were actually controls on the pole grips, but as a safety feature, they didn't work unless they'd first touched the pad on the rockets, which individually keyed the Bluetooth for that pair of ski poles to that pair of boosters… a trick Kim and Wade had come up after Ron had accidentally sent Kim off one cliff too many.

Apparently she was a little TOO obvious with her concern, however, as Shego suddenly turned and caught Kim's eye in with a strange look that was halfway between a grimace and a smirk. "I'll be fine, Princess. I've fought with worse pain than this before. Hell, so have you. And half the time I did it to you."

Ouch. And yet, true enough, considering that Kim hadn't bothered to mention that she'd been coughing up blood when Shego's back was turned. At least she wasn't seeing with doubled vision anymore.

"Okay, okay…" She growled as they engaged their thrusters and she and Shego began to move slowly up the hill… slow being a relative term, as 15mph UP an incline was a more than respectable rate on skis, but because they had to actually SEE their own feet to ski, they couldn't use the invisibility trick. Put those two facts together and something in Kim's gut was saying that it wasn't going to be fast enough. Which reminded her that there were other things that needed to be fast tracked. "Wade? Have you finished running your analysis yet?"

"Almost Kim," Wade's voice popped up in her head while his image appeared inside her visor. "And it's not good. Those trees were what we were counting on to hold a lot of the ice back if we had a partial detonation. It looks like Junior's either crazier than we thought, or a whole lot dumber."

"Or both," Kim concluded. "There were a bunch of people up on top of the glacier when we dropped. Do we know where they went?"

"We've been trying to figure that out, Kim," Ron's voice and image now replied. "Your brothers and I have been going over the satellite data and our own scans and it LOOKS like there were two different groups right before the explosions. The ones that were right on top of the big bombs are heading back to the castle as fast as they can… they've even abandoned the vehicles that were actually on the ice, but there were three more parked in the woods… and uh… you're not going to like this."

"Try me," Kim could hear her own voice trying to keep from groaning.

"We're starting to have a lot of problems with the scan and communications gear," Wade inserted, "Right after the explosion went off, someone started running a hell of a lot of jamming equipment. It wasn't there before the explosion, but now we're having trouble with anything except purely visual info… which, given the trees and groundcover, means that there could be a whole army down there that we can't even see."

"You're right. I don't like it." Kim sighed. "Okay, try and keep track of them… In fact, that sounds like an ideal thing for Stevens to be doing with the Hovercraft once he delivers the Ninjagram. In the meantime, keep us updated on what's going on. We're going to try and get those bombs defused before anything else goes wrong."

"Right." "You got it." "10-4, good buddy."

Kim blinked at the last one. Had that really been WILL? Well, she'd been trying to get him to loosen up, but he certainly chose an odd place to start. Now she had to wonder just what else this day still had to throw at her…

####

"ETA?" Cholla, head of the Henchco forces, demanded from his jump seat as they moved in for the kill.

"15 minutes," the co-pilot informed him, the pilot being far too busy keeping the hypersonic transport they were in from coming apart at the seams. This plane and it's three sisters had been red-lining the engines since takeoff and as a result had no doubt set a new record time for a troop transport crossing the Atlantic. Now they were blowing through European airspace like they the local defense systems weren't even there thanks to Hencho's "new" generation of radar and sensor jamming systems. "New," that is, in so much as the devices had been stolen from the wreckage of Lowardian vehicles and had never been used on human piloted ships before. No one was exactly sure how they worked yet, as unlike conventional stealth, which relied on the physical shape of an aircraft reducing its radar signature, the new HRJ systems seemed to be a throwback to technology from the 1960s, when attempts had been made to counter incoming radar electronically. Those early human attempts hadn't worked well… in fact, on more than one occasion, the only survivors of U2 missions were the ones whose electronic systems had failed, but apparently Lowardian technology had not only been able to make the idea work, it had even added a projected jamming bubble to the mix. Right now, the hostiles in the target zone would have no idea they were even coming.

#####

"And they'll have no idea we're even coming," Gemini gloated to Pepe as he looked out the window of their hyper-transport, "Thanks to the Lowardian technology I alone control."

"Keep your hands away from the dog, Sheldon," Nanny Nane scowled, slapping his wrist away from the next jump seat over. "And how can you say that you alone control a technology that you bought from someone else?"

"Well, I…" Sheldon winced. He'd only wanted to pet Pepe's head, and the man had sworn he was selling it only to Gemini when he had. Why would he lie?

"No," Nane scowled. "Never trust on having the technological advantage. And even if you do, don't expect that to be the deciding point. That's the lesson the Soviets learned in Afganistan and the Americans should have learned from Viet Nam. And even if we do have the element of surprise, it isn't going to cancel out the fact that we know nothing about the ground based defenses. Whoever our employer is, he seems to know as much about proper military tactics as one of those ridiculous war gamers."

The woman sniffed nastily, then lowered her voice to a whisper. "In fact, if the entrenched fortifications are anything to sneeze at, the odds are that we're going to take significant casualties in the first wave. That's why it's so important that you lead your men in the first few minutes of the battle. I'd prefer to do it myself, of course, but ever since the hip-replacement, my times on the obstacle course have been absolutely horrid."

Gemini looked away from the woman he hated more than… well, damn near anything except maybe his sister. At least she'd whispered that last aside, rather than said it at full volume in front of his men.

"Are we there yet?" he whined to the pilot in front of him.

"ETA twenty minutes," the pilot replied, wondering why the damn fool didn't just look at his watch and subtract the minutes since the last time he'd asked.

####

Bonnie wasn't sure how she'd managed to remain moving for so long. Pure terror, apparently, could do that for you though.

She'd almost lost it when the huge explosion covered the horizon. She didn't have the air left for an exclamation; her lungs were already pumping too hard from the constant exertion of trying to stay in from of the pack of henchmen directly behind her… well, it was down to three of them now. They'd seen the flames erupt at the same time and at least one of them had gone down then. Two more had impacted brutally into trees… even if the impact hadn't killed them, lying untreated in the freezing weather would have finished them off, so each time another Henchman had peeled off to render assistance. Bonnie had been too freaked out for a while to even think about it, but now that her physical stamina was almost gone, and as they were sking slower and slower due to exhaustion, her mind had been suddenly seized by the idea that Ralph had somehow prematurely detonated the bombs. And because her mind was so preoccupied with that and the men behind her, she never even noticed the far more deadly threat that was coming in.

#####

Kim SHOULD have been concentrating on the terrain in front of her, but it was increasingly difficult to keep from splitting her attention between that and the ex-villain who'd stolen her heart. It was just too hard to ignore the look of pain in Shego's eyes every time she had to move her leg, which, even with the rocket boosters, was constantly. At the same time, she knew that making any comments about Shego pulling out was futile… her girlfriend was just as aggravatingly stubborn as she was. Still, maybe she could at least keep her from focusing on it too much.

"You know, when all of this is over, I want to go out and have a real date," Kim began, keeping a careful eye on how Shego was handling the turns as their speedometers hit 20mph.

"A date?" Shego turned her head back to look at Kim, her eyes blinking at the sudden comment.

"EYES AHEAD!" Kim almost shrieked, then let her voice drop down as Shego failed to Sonny Bono into the tree that had popped up in front of them. "Yeah, you know. What people do when they're not saving the world. Dinner, dancing, the works."

"Hmm. Not sure how that's gonna play out…" Shego mused. "Not the dancing part, I'll dance rings around you, even if my leg hasn't healed yet… but uh… exactly which one of us is going to be trying to get the other one in bed?"

"Um…" Now it was Kim's turn to be perplexed. "Well, I figured we both would, but…"

"No, no…" Shego argued. "Ignoring the fact that I don't need to walk or even stand for the best part of the date, there are rules of engagement for this sort of thing."

"Rules of engagement?" Kim swerved to avoid a bolder that Shego had somehow effortlessly gone up and over.

"Right. Now, admittedly my own personal dating experience is almost as limited as yours, but I've read enough cheesey romance novels…"

"You read ROMANCE novels?" Kim had finally caught up to the point where she was skiing parallel to Shego.

"Well, mostly paranormal romances and the occasional romantic thriller, but yeah. What, you didn't think I could read?"

"No… I just…" Kim cut herself before she could dig herself in deeper with comments about the lonely hearts column for Soldier Of Fortune. "I'm just surprised at the choice of material, that's all. Can we get back to the rules thing?"

"Right. Well, the thing is, a date doesn't work under the same rules as any other kind of strategic campaign, especially if there's a nice meal involved. Somebody has to be trying to get something out of somebody, or into somebody's something, as the case may be. Technically, the seducer and the seducee."

"Have I ever mentioned that you have a twisted mind?"

"You didn't complain when I set up the min-trampoline next to the bed, and I'M not the one who came up 'let's set ourselves on fire while we're…"

"Okay, okay!" Kim gave in. "You can buy me dinner and then I…"

"Why would I want to buy you dinner?" Shego batted her eyes at Kim demurely. "MY girlfriend already sleeps with me. Besides, I'm not the one who's proposing a date."

"Are you saying you DON'T want to go out?"

"Not at all." Shego grinned evilly. "It sounds great, really. But since it's your idea, you get the role of the seducer. My job, as the seducee, is to send out mixed signals, make you jump through hoops and generally drive you crazy, all while looking gorgeous and fuckable."

"Okay, fine! I'll buy you dinner, take you dancing and… would you like to speak up about anything else you'd like?"

"No, that's cheating too. You have to figure out what the girl in question wants, Pumpkin, and IF you impress her, maybe you'll get lucky."

"MAYBE? I KNOW what the girl in question wants. A whack on the keister."

"Oooo! Sounds like fun!"

"Yeah… you know what? I think we should just…"

Kim's comment on her sado-sexual inclinations was cut off as Wade broke in worriedly over the radio.

"Kim? I hate to say this, but I think we've got more trouble coming our way. We still can't pick up anything in the valley, but between GR One's long range sensors and the satellites, we're pretty sure we're picking up eight hypersonic footprints coming straight our way."

"Eight?" Shego repeated as she and Kim exchanged looks.

"Yes. Four to the east and another four to the north east. Jim's trying to get visuals off the satellites now, but they're not as advanced as our own sensors are… post-Lowardian stealth is so far beyond what we had to deal with a year ago that most of the birds in orbit aren't equipped to penetrate it, and whatever's coming our way is running state of the art jamming. However, whoever and whatever they are, the fact that they're doing it on unannounced flight plans and in full stealth…

"…almost definitely means that they're bad news," Kim growled in agreement. "That's how I would read it too. ETA?"

"Northeast signature, maybe 10 minutes. Easterly… perhaps five after that."

"Okay," Kim nodded. They were almost to the base of the glacier. "Will, what's our deployment status?"

"We've deployed the hovercraft and Steven's is dropping off the Ninjagram," Will informed them, "We were coming back around to drop off Mendoza's team, but now…"

Shego and Kim eyed each other. Putting all of their forces on the ground gave up a tactical advantage, and the original purpose… to distract the guards on the ice… seemed to be no longer needed.

"Yeah, let's hold on that for a few minutes," Kim decided. "In fact, why don't you make yourself scarce for the next fifteen minutes or so until we know who's coming to pay a visit." A wolf-like grin spread across her face. "It may be that Turkey Shoot's playing out earlier than we anticipated."

"Yeah," Shego muttered under her breath, "But who's gong to be doing the shooting and who are the turkeys?"

#####

"YeeeeeeeHaaaaaaa!" Crash screamed as SkyVixen tore into the air above the ancient glacier.

Normally Dash would have chided his partner for behaving like that in front of a paying customer, but this was only the third time they'd ever used the incredible craft… it had been stolen about sixteen times since originally being developed, with Team Impossible becoming the latest owners while 'recovering' it from a notorious Columbian drug lord. They'd reported it as having been destroyed and expected to make a huge profit on it on the black market, but had instead found it to be way too hot to put on the market. A few VERY tentative inquiries had revealed that no government, even the most fanatical, was willing to take the risk of angering the obscure U.S. Intelligence agency that had originally created it, while the fact that it have a record of being stolen almost as quickly as it was purchased tended to dissuade prospective buyers from the private sector. A shame, since the craft was worth considerably more than the bounty that they were about to split for downing Kim Possible.

On the other hand, for this mission, there wasn't anything in the world that was better suited for the job. In its original full stealth mode, SkyVixen was undetectable to just about anything… it wasn't just invisible to radar, it was almost invisible to the naked eye as well thanks to hundreds of phototransmission cells covering all of the external fuselage except for the rotors. When active, they transmitted a blurry image of whatever was on the other side of SkyVixen to the other. Against a pale blue sky, or when looked at from above over an unbroken line of trees, it was nearly impossible to see. It was rumored that during one of its original operational tests, it had actually been discovered only once, and that was when someone had literally run into it. And when the Lowardian stealth technology Team Impossible had acquired was added on, it was the least visible object on the planet.

So, instead, Dash let Crash play as he took in the vision of the valley, where flames licking nearly 600 feet in the air consumed half the horizon.

"Damn," was just about all he could find to say. They'd seen the initial blinding flash from thirty miles away, but as they drew closer, the sheer magnitude of it was staggering. What the hell could have started a fire like that so quickly? The fact that their employer/partner passenger had been the only one who didn't gasp was a fact not lost on Dash. In fact, Adrena's face had taken on an eager look of anticipation, like a kid waiting to unwrap a present.

"She's up there," Adrena's face had smiled, her face taking on a raptor-like appearance. "When everything's going to shit, Possible's always in the middle of it."

Dash, Crash and Burn hadn't argued. That had fit their experience with the infamous redhead as well.

"I've got movement on the ice," Burn suddenly announced from his postion at the sensor board. "Two targets… Going for a visual."

The main screen came alive with a jerky video image… the jerkiness because of the extreme range couple with the actual vibrations of SkyVixens body. The image was good enough, though.

Two figures, on skis and moving very fast… and there was no mistaking the bright red hair on the one.

"Paydirt!" Dash laughed, turning to Burn. "Time to bring up the big guns!"

"The hell you will!" Adrena hissed. "I get my shot first."

"Don't get your panties in a wad," Crash laughed, ignoring Adrena's furious glare. "Dash is just going to take out Shego!"

"Yeah," Dash grinned, picking up the controls for the Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-30 30mm cannon they'd scavenged from the wreckage of a downed Mig-27. Unfortunately, the ballistic specs on SkyVixen's original Gatling gun-style M-161 20 mm Vulcan Canon Sky Vixen been too well documented, so rather than leaving behind spent bullets and casings that might have been traced back to the 'destroyed' SkyVixen, they'd mounted the gas-powered, electrically driven substitute and found its 4000–6000 rounds/min rate of fire and 845 m/s (2770 ft/s) muzzle velocity to be an adequate substitute for 6,600 rounds per minute, 3,450 feet per second (1,050 m/s) of the factory equipment, given the fact that the GS's bullet size was half-again as large and faster to come to full speed versus the hydraulic Vulcan.

Just the weapon you wanted when you needed to cut someone with super-fast healing abilities in half.

"Okay Crash," Dash ordered. "Let's bring her around for the kill!"

######

They were almost there, Kim exulted! Only a few hundred feet more and they'd be at the spot where the first bomb was set up. She looked over at Shego and saw a grin on the green woman's face that was probably identical to her own.

Kim wasn't sure what it was, but something inside her made her look up at just the right second. That's when she saw the shadow passing on the ground ahead of them, coming directly for them!

"Shego!" She screamed as now she heard the whirring sound and the shadow got bigger and bigger. "INCOMING!"

And then a stream of liquid fire erupted in front of them!

#######

"YES!" Screamed Dash as SkyVixen's cannon fired, sending a sizzling stream of molten steel into the second target. His aim was dead on and the results were incredible as the body of his victim literally vaporized!

"YEAH!" Burn chorused behind him! "The Green Bitch is history!"

######

Bonnie screamed as the strange helicopter-like vehicle materialized out of nowhere, spewing a lethal spray of lead to either side of her as it swooped past, yet miraculously somehow missing her.

But just her. She heard the horribly cut-off scream behind her and a quick terrified look back showed that the last man who'd been chasing her had been reduced to…

Oh God.

It was a good thing that she'd barely had anything to eat. She would have vomited all over herself otherwise.

And maybe it was vain of her, she thought, as the helicopter circled around and came back at her again, but she really didn't want to die covered in her own puke.

######

Kim and Shego hit the ground just in time, flinging themselves back as an arcing electric beam of force cut a huge swath out of the ground in front of them. The heat was as bad as the burning forest had been and the air was filled with a smell like ozone and burnt hair! Whatever the hell kind of beam it was, it was cutting a ten foot deep trench through the snow and down into the solid rock itself!

And THAT's when the giant metal feet impacted the ground barely sixty feet in front of them.

Kim and Shego stared up in shock. They thought they'd anticipated everything. But this… this was unprecedented.

"Guys," Kim announced to her team. "We have a problem down here."

It was a Lowardian Battle Tripod.

And as bad as that was, what happened next was even less desirable.

"Whoa! Red AND Green together!" The amplified voice of Motor Ed issued from somewhere up inside the fuselage. "I hate to do this to some righteous babes, but you're in for a serious world of hurt!"

"Correction," Shego corrected. "We have a SERIOUS problem."


	48. Chapter 48

_Author's Note: Okay, I know it's been over a week since I last updated this title. I kinda went a little crazy on the holiday specials this month, with 1 song and three separate stand-alones with a Christmas/Holiday theme since the last ATCOTS, including the long promised __**Hop On Possible – How Shego Stole Kimness **__and not one but TWO stories for whitem's Christmas contest: __**Eggnogged – A Tale of the Night Before the Night Before Xmas**__ and __**A Very, Very Blue Christmas**__. (If you have a chance, check those out along with my other Holiday specials, and when Whitem puts up the poll on the forums, feel free to drop by, vote early and vote often! :P) The other reason it's taken so long to get back to this is that, unfortunately, we had to trave by car rather than plane this year (and if you saw what happened to the airports, you know why) so there was a lot less time to write while actually on the way the way than I normally manage squeeze in… and then the dang relatives, dang it, had the audacity to expect me to actually visit and talk to them over the holidays! The nerve! But anyways, here we are, back again at last. Thanks for all the favs and great reviews. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Bonnie Rockwaller, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Adrena Lynn, Jim and Tim Possible (formerly known as the Tweebs,) Team Impossible (Dash Demond, Crash Cranstin and Burn Burman,) Motor Ed, Electronique and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Lt. Gay Ellis MAY be the property of Gerry Anderson and Century21, but she's not saying. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Ralph Emerson, Sam Jackson, Eric Jackson, Jose Mendoza and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

####

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 48

######

Bonnie screamed as a second round of gun fire ripped over her head, shredding the trees directly ahead of her into kindling. She'd tried to duck into the woods, to escape the view of the helicopter, but it seemed to be able to track her somehow. Infra red, that's what they called it when they tracked by body heat, right? Not that it mattered much, because she wasn't going anywhere. Her skis had given her an edge in mobility but now with the way blocked in every direction she was going to have to go on foot and…

The ominous black shape of the helicopter suddenly appeared, hovering, overhead, and then her body was slammed forward. There was a stinging sensation between her shoulder blades and her vision was gone even before her face smashed into the snow covered ground.

######

"Mirror image-right!" Kim shouted, redundantly since Shego had the same idea at the same instant, dropping into the emergency holo routine they'd come up with for exactly this kind of situation. A sharp eye looking in just the right place the might have noticed the sudden blurring of their figures, but from Ed's point of a view, they now seemed to be skiing as fast as they could in a wide arc to the left, whereas in reality, those were just Kimmunicator- generated projections, reverse images of the two women who were actually circling in the other direction. It wasn't a perfect trick, and one that was especially tricky while on snow, as their illusion selves were slightly transparent and weren't leaving any lasting marks in the snow, but at least it didn't immediately give away the Kimmunicator's holographic capabilities, which going to full camo-mode in front of him would have. On the negative side, being unable to see their own feet, skis and poles made skiing far more difficult and dangerous… Kim's perception of 'self' ended just outside the inside of her visor… and the one thing that they absolutely couldn't afford was to let Ed drive them further away from the bombs. If their projectors had been stronger they might have been able to trick fool into thinking they'd gone into the woods and completely lured him away, but the range to the nearest trees was simply too far. But with any luck it would buy them a few seconds to think…

"Hey! Wait!" Ed's voice screamed in frustration over the Lowardian equivalent of a loudspeaker, and a series of energy burst erupted from the Tripod's photon cannon, deliberately firing a dozen feet in front of where Ed thought 'they' actually were. Good, thought Kim, seeing that he wasn't about to use the weapon directly on her… of course that a was a relative use of the word 'good,' as he was only trying not to hit her full on as it would vaporize her entire body and make any chance of a payoff. On the other hand, Shego enjoyed no such advantage, so Kim's first priority had to be getting her girlfriend to some form of safe cover. No, damn it, the love of her life still had to wait at second priority. There was still the problem of the ticking thermite bombs and the threat to the glacier sitting up there at number one. And then there was priority three, keeping her own fool self alive. There were, she reflected, days when this whole saving the world gig really didn't seem like such a great idea... and this was definitely stacking up to be one of them.

######

"Probable hostile target!" Will exclaimed suddenly from his controls on GR One!

"We know that!" Ron shouted back from two feet away, cutting off Wade and Kim's identical but long distance protest of the same. "It's a frikking Tripod!"

"No, I mean ANOTHER one!" Will corrected, pulling up a replay of what he'd seen on the forward camera as he spoke. A helicopter suddenly appearing about three miles to the north of the glacier, firing some kind of weapon, then disappearing back into invisibility. "It's not popping up on the radar but I got a visual as it popped out of stealth about a mile to the north and shot at something!"

"Crap, he's right!" Jim's voice came over the headsets. "What the hell was that thing?"

"I don't know but its still heading north at the moment," Kim's voice responded, "So it's not our most immediate problem. Track it, identify it and let me know if heads back this way."

#####

"Right Sis," Jim's voice crackled back over the radio, his voice distorting as the rippling energy wave of the Tripod's photon cannon created a wave of interference as it blasted again .

"I'd ask what fucking idiot came up with the name Turkey Shoot?" Shego's sarcasm was obviously oozing through gritted teeth… Kim couldn't see it, but she almost feel how Shego's leg kept twisting in mid-slalom, yet the green woman somehow held back the pain. "But I want to keep getting laid. So you got any ideas how to handle a Tripod, princess?"

"Maybe," Kim fired back, wincing at the pain she heard in Shego's voice and wishing she could actually see how her lover was really holding up. This invisible act was proving to have some major drawbacks. "My dad helped take some of them apart after the invasion, and they have a few weaknesses. Wade? Do you have those specs?"

"Already pulling them up Kim." Wade's voice came in as schematics began rolling through Kim's visor. "The Cliff's notes version is that you're facing is one of the manual variants, capable of being used remotely or as the equivalent of a tank, and the biggest weakspots are that the cowling around the weapons pod area and the backs of the leg joints aren't as heavily armored as the rest of the ship… they suspected that the former was so that if the guns were to blow, all the energy would be channeled outward. I've also got a notation that they think that's because the design was prone to blockage. But Kim, when we're talking about less armor, we're still talking about something you'd need a Stinger or a howitzer to pierce."

Kim studied the leg joints, a good forty feet up in the air. "What about our demolitions charges?"

"Um… maybe. You'd have to plant them directly on the target area and it would be iffy for the legs. Might take out the weapon pod, though, if you could get close enough."

"Yeah, that's the trick," Shego sighed, watching the Tripod still attempting to shoot their holographic likenesses. That was a long way up in her condition, which meant...

"Not a problem," Kim confirmed with what she hoped sounded like confidence. Their curving path had now brought them to the rear of the tripod, and since the increasing distance would have made their holographic selves start to flicker, their mirror twins were now moving on a parallel course. "Think your leg's up for a full rocket burn run?"

Shego's voice came back with equal cocksureness. "Yeah. I can do that. What's your idea?"

"To take advantage of the fact that they need my body," Kim growled, pulling out her grappler.

#######

"Don't shoot her you idiot!" Electronique screamed! "You'll vaporize her!"

"I'm trying not to!" Ed yelled back, sweat pouring off his face. "Stop yelling at me! I thought they'd just stop and surrender when they saw us!"

"Possible and Shego? What the hell planet have you been living on?" Electronique snarled, "Have you forgotten who took out the Lowardians in the first place?"

'_Damn it,'_ Ed thought. _'How had he ended up here?'_ Fortune had never been much of a friend to Ed, but the last six months had been an up and down roller coaster that left even his jaded and sometimes rather slow senses reeling. Six months ago ALL of his hideouts had been hit at once as part of simultaneous Global Justice strike… an offensive, he'd later learned, that had been based almost completely on information gleaned from his treacherous cousin Drew, who'd been only too glad to sell out as many of his former villainous colleagues as he could while basking in his new role as a hero and GJ suck-up. Caught completely off guard, Ed's assets and entire support net had been wiped out in a matter of minutes and he'd barely managed to escape with nothing more than the gear he'd happened to have packed in his emergency escape truck. From that low, his luck had made an incredible reversal when, while evading a police roadblock, he'd literally stumbled the Lowardian tripod that the government cleanup crews had somehow missed, and it had actually been one of the 'command' models that allowed for manual (or Lowardual) control... the ultimate ride! (As near as Ed could surmise, the titanic metal monstrosity had apparently suffered a thruster malfunction during the initial Lowardian attack, and rather than setting down in the middle of a major metropolitan area somewhere, it had instead landed in the middle of the desert and proceeded to follow orders intended for taking down city buildings, resulting in its being buried beneath a landslide.) More bad news followed as, after blowing every last penny he had trying to make the damn thing work, he'd finally realized that the central electronics package, the brain of the whole thing, was hopelessly scrambled, and since his usual fallback in times of economic despair had been cousin Drew, Ed had actually been reduced to living in the cave where he'd stored the tripod while he attempted to teach himself enough Lowardian to somehow fix it. Then, another upstroke: he was offered this bounty for catching Red… and 'catching' is what he kept telling himself it was, though he knew that even if he did succeed in turning her over alive, her life expectancy after that could probably be measured in minutes. That had been a hard decision to make, as, in his mind, she was still the gawky teenager who'd always been there to foil his plots as well as Drew's, even if she was posing for calendars these days. But from the low of having to make the choice between that or living on cave rats, his luck had swung back again when the contract also required rescuing and teaming with Electronique.

He stole a glance over at the half-naked blue woman. She'd finally put on her bra and panties, but she was still certifiably bughouse crazy; although from what she'd said the fault was really the attitudinator's. On the other hand, sane or nutso, there was no denying that her abilities with electronics, and in just fifteen minutes she'd fixed the operational and guidance system problems that had stumped him for months. If he could just get her to lay back on the sex a little bit, she'd be…

'_She'd be WHAT?'_ Ed blinked in shock at the direction of his own thoughts, utilizing a portion of his brain he wasn't sure he'd ever actually used before. Given his usual problems with women, when would he have had the chance? He knew he was big, scary and didn't come across as exceptionally bright, but he'd had more sex in the last day than he'd ever imagined possible and, somehow, unbelievably, he'd actually been able to outlast Electronique long enough for her to FINALLY drift off to sleep… sporting the most insane smile on her face that Ed had ever seen. Then, running on the last dregs of strength in his body… and walking in a hunchbacked, pigeon-toed manner dictated by the raw and burning lump of flesh that had once been his manhood, he'd surprised himself by managing to quietly complete the critical repairs on his baby.

He'd also surprised the hell out of the man on the other end of the silver phone; but the representative of the customer for this little job had been quite happy to tell him what everyone else had already learned… the man's exact words had been, "Oh what the hell, the more the merrier," and thanks to the Lowardian technology of his new ultimate ride, Ed had been able to race across the Atlantic in just 50 minutes while completely invisible to any sensors known to mankind. Unfortunately, he didn't really understand how the whole vehicle worked yet and he couldn't read Lowardian worth a damn… so he'd had to wake the sleeping Electronique and… much to his relief… the sleep had seemed to reset her urges so that she could focus on helping him. She'd even seemed… dare he think it… _impressed_ by what he'd managed to do, and that, in turn, had left him feeling… really kinda weird.

In a good sort of way.

And why was he thinking about that NOW, he wondered, as he desperately swiveled the pivot cannon after the swirling forms of Possible and Shego, trying to gouge a deep enough trench in front of them that it would cut them off, yet somehow they kept flying through everything he put in front of them. How could they keep…?

Electronique figured it out first.

"Holograms!" She gasped! "They're not leaving any tracks! Look for the tracks… over there!"

"Damn it!" Ed gaped, realizing she was right. But even as he snapped to it, Kim and Shego pulled out another tactic and split, the green woman splitting off to one side and Kim making what appeared to be a suicide run straight towards the Tripod! That HAD to be a hologram! No one would be that crazy!

#######

"_This is either going to work,"_ Kim had time to think as she headed straight towards the Tripod at eighty percent thrust, now clipping at somewhere around eighty miles an hour, _"Or I'm about to find out what it's like to become a lot of little particles really quickly." _

Then her grappler came up and fired, milliseconds before she hit max thrust on her rockets, and as she hit full burn, the anchor snagged and locked on its target, the Tripod's own cannon barrel! What happened next happened so quickly that it was almost beyond the human eye's ability to track. The cable went taut as Kim ejected from her skis, arcing up and OVER the top of the tripod, coming down right on top of the front cockpit, mere inches from Ed and Electronique! She'd released the grappler on the arc down and in each hand instead was a small wad of plastic explosive, complete with detonator, that she plopped directly on the windscreen in front of them, and then, as they gaped, finished the maneuver with a most un-Kim Possible-like single finger salute and dropped out of sight.

Ed and Electronique had just enough time to register what had happened, then threw themselves backwards, away from the viewport. If they'd had time to think about it, they'd have realized that nothing Kim was likely to be carrying would be able to penetrate a Lowardian quartz crystal screen, but they didn't have time to think and acted as any normal human would on seeing a bomb directly outside their window. Exactly as Kim had anticipated.

Which had bought the teen hero just enough time to plant several more handfuls of explosive and detonators around the photon cannon, her real target. Grabbing the still dangling grappler cable, she dropped down and swung under the vehicle so that its body protected her own as she hit the remote detonator switch.

Bam! The firecracks of the tiny detonation reverberated against the nearby glacial ice, just in time to be joined by the larger explosive concussion of the actual charges erupting into a more ear-shattering boom! Suddenly the tripod was sporting two small tiny black scores across its viewscreen while its photon cannon was now a shriveled and dangling length of charred tubing that hung limply between the giant vehicles legs... but that was only the beginning of the indignities the once mighty Tripod was about to endure, as the SECOND half of the assault kicked in.

"Timber!" Shego yelled, having finished her own mission. While Kim had take the straight route in, Shego had come around under full camo and used her own grappler to climb up one of the legs, where she'd used her plasma to neatly gut out the innards and internal supports from the rearmost leg. She jumped free, using her own cable to slow her fall so she could land one-legged just as a tremendous creaking sound of tortured metal tearing heralded the Tripod's slow sideways fall over onto its back.

"And Boo-yah!" Grinned Shego as she hobbled over to the canopy and began to spot-weld Ed and Electronique inside the prison they had brought for themselves while Kim attached yet ANOTHER round of explosives onto the Tripod's lift units.

"Good enough," Kim agreed, flipping the detonator and completing the total immobilization of the Tripod. "Now let's get to those bombs…"

Kim started running up towards where the first thermite bomb had been planted.

Then stopped.

"What the hell?"

"It's about time you got here," Ralph grunted, tossing the last of the detonators over his shoulder. "What? You've never seen a bad guy switch sides before?"

######

"I told you it wasn't Kim Possible," A female voice sneered. "There's no way she would have frozen up like that."

Bonnie gasped as she was rolled onto her back and her eyes woozily resolved the face of a strange woman with a scarred face, scowling at her with the kind of expression she might have reserved for burning ants beneath a magnifying glass. Normally Bonnie would automatically have made a biting and acerbic retort, but whatever they'd hit her with had already left her brain groggy and running at half speed… and the large knife that the woman had brought up against her throat cut off any further thought of that course of action. As Bonnie's focus continued to clear, she could now see that there were two men standing behind the woman; a taller dark skinned man and a shorter, heavier white guy. They looked slightly less dangerous than the woman, but it was obvious from their posture and position that were obviously subservient to Knife-Bitch.

"Those were Henchco goons chasing you, so you're connected to this somehow," The woman stated in a matter of fact manner. "Tell us what's going on and where Kim Possible is and I'll let you live."

"I don't…" Bonnie began and felt the blade push further into her skin.

"Tell us." The woman repeated, as Bonnie felt her own blood start to run down her neck. If she didn't tell this woman something, she was going to die. What was she…?

And that's when it hit her that she had a very slim opportunity, if she could play it right. She doubted that these people would have any interest in defusing the bombs, so she had to keep all attention away from Ralph. To give him time…

If he was even still alive…

And the irony was that, while she wasn't Kim Possible, this was something she COULD do. Because there was one thing that she was better at than Kim.

Bonnie knew how to sell a lie.

"Junior set a trap…" Bonnie stammered out,

"Junior?" The woman's brow creased.

"Senior Senior Junior," the shorter, white man supplied. "The Senior's own a castle three miles to the southwest of here. Is that who you mean?"

Bonnie nodded carefully, trying desperately not to push against the knife blade. "Yes."

"And is that where Possible is?" The shorter man repeated.

"Is it?" The woman pushed again. Bonnie wasn't sure if she wasn't actually crazier than Junior, but she also knew she had to wait for a question she could answer without making a blatant lie. The best way to sell a falsehood was to frame it with real truths, and while she was a good enough actress to fool most people normally, she didn't trust herself not to make a mistake under these conditions.

"Don't kill her Adrena," the dark skinned man inserted cautiously. "She's the only local source of intel we have."

'_Thank God'_ Bonnie started to think, _'At least one of them has some kind of humanity.'_

And then the man continued. "Just cut off her fingers until she tells you."

"Junior's going to shoot some kind of movie!" Bonnie blurted. "The bombs, all of it, was to catch her. He has some kind of movie set in the castle."

"And that's where he's got her?" The shorter man asked again.

"I didn't see it," Bonnie cried, completely truthfully, grabbing for the line she could twist into a partial truth! "I'm just his girlfriend! His EX-girlfriend! And I took advantage of the confusion to escape but…"

And now the big sell. "That's where he said he was taking her."

The scarred woman… Adrena… looked at her for a moment, then made some kind of decision. "Put her in the copter. I think we're all going to have to visit Mister Senior."


	49. Chapter 49

Back, finally. Sorry for the long break, but it's been crazy. A show I worked on a while ago just got picked up by SyFy. I've long since been paid for that gig, but it always spikes your profile up a bit, so I've been grabbing as many new assignments as I can while they're coming in… and it's pretty hard to turn down juicey opportunities like a chance develop a werewolf film Anyway, have no fear that I'd stopped working on this. More coming soon, ditto with my new series **KiGo and the Brain **and **The Kimberly Horror Picture Show**. Just trying to squeeze everything in. Thanks once more for all the reviews and favs and I hope you enjoy the ride. _Author's Note: __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Will Du, Bonnie Rockwaller, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., and Jim and Tim Possible (formerly known as the Tweebs,) plus all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Lt. Gay Ellis MAY be the property of Gerry Anderson and Century21, but she's not saying. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Ralph Emerson, Jose Mendoza, Stevens and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

##########

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 49

##########

"What in the hell was…" Camille snarled as her regrouped and team finally made it back to the edge of the glacier, only to be greeted by a series of blinding flashes and reverberating booms.

"…that?" She gasped as she saw the LOWARDIAN tripod suddenly erupt in flames and begin to fall. But if the appearance of the alien vehicle hadn't been terrifying enough, the sight of the two figures sprinting for safety as it toppled made her bladder almost lose control.

Holy crap! Possible and Shego had just taken out a TRIPOD by themselves! ON FOOT! She didn't care what the hell the prize was, she was NOT going out there to face those two by themselves!

Fortunately, she had Junior's henchmen to do that for her, their numbers now bulked up to thirty.

"You twenty," She ordered, pointing at a random group. "She's going to go for the bombs. Advance from here along the wood's edge and attempt to intercept. The rest of you, come with me and we'll circle around from the other side."

"_And with any luck,"_ she thought, _"My REAL support troops will be arriving just about the time Possible and Shego finish turning you into hamburger."_

##########

Even with the fresh coat of snow to act as an insulator, the rocky walls of the valley surround Castle Senior were still a natural conduit for sound, so Stevens had been forced to take a long slow glide path using minimal engines in order to be 100% positive that Senior Junior's men wouldn't be alerted. However, if the hovercraft had drifted in so silently that the soft whir of its motors in stealth mode could have been mistaken for the sound of clumps of snow falling from the surrounding trees, the sound of the team of ninja's dropping the final distance to the icy ground was even quieter. Even more stunning, to Cyn, was the fact that team lead by Yori and Hirotaka didn't even leave footprints in the snow to mark their passing and within seconds only the young female ninja was still visible. A few weeks ago, Cyn would have said it was impossible, but after her intense introductory course to the world of Kim Possible, she'd pretty much come to believe that nothing was undoable anymore. Not if humans put their minds to it and tried hard enough.

And that included changing themselves. As she watched Yori and Gay exchange a quick set of hand signals, and the last of the ninjas disappeared into the frozen night, Cyn mused that the her of a month ago probably wouldn't have believed that she wouldn't even think of trying to photograph what she had just seen. But the ninjas were Cyn's allies now… well, technically they were Kim's allies, but the red headed siren seemed to have a knack for turning everything into an "us" proposition; the shared shock and horror that had consumed every single person aboard GR One for the frantic few seconds after the bombs had gone off below Shego and Kim were proof of that. If there was a man or woman on the team that didn't consider Kim to be their spiritual sister, she'd seen no sign of it, and while a few of the die-hardest GJ's still harbored some vague suspicions about Shego, she'd definitely made it into the family as well. And as for herself… the cynical Cyn of a few weeks ago would never have believed that she'd somehow recover that long lost idealism of her youth, that she'd be willing to toss everything she'd worked towards for her entire adult life just for the chance to make a difference in the world. And yet, here she was, ready to make that jump. Oh, Cyn loved working for Anna dearly, but she'd already decided that the photographer was going to be in the market for a new assistant; Cyn Rushing had finally found her true calling, and while she knew she'd probably be able to score a job at any news agency on the planet on the basis of her short but rather impressive resume, she was going to do her damnedest to find a way to somehow worm her way into Global Rescue on a full time basis.

Even if, the way things were going, she'd probably get her damn fool self killed in the process.

As the hatch to the hovercraft FINALLY sealed shut with a Tupperware-like 'shoosh,' Stevens finally broke the spell of silence, speaking softly but urgently into his headset.

"Eagle, this is Pigeon. Surprise package delivered. May we… request updated mission instructions?"

Which, Cyn thought, was a remarkably subtle and restrained way to ask _"please tell us what the hell is going on?" _ The fact that the GJ forces seemed to have their own peculiar sub-dialect of the English language, filled with code phrases and alternate assigned names for everything, was a little frustrating at times, but Kim had confided to her that they'd felt it was best not to mess with operational patterns that bordered on the instinctual.

"Request granted, Pigeon," Will's voice came back smoothly through the ear-buds that both Cyn and Gay were wearing to tie them into the communications. "Firebird and Phoenix have had a rough few minutes, but the mission plan is still go and objective one has been met. However, Owl advises that the air is about to be full of multiple, repeat, multiple enemy hostiles. Phoenix has specifically requested that you take good care of Ladyhawke and Rubber Duck, and suggests the following modifications to your flightplan…"

Cyn tuned out the rest as she let out the breath she'd been holding. Kim and Shego were okay, and it sounded like the glacier situation was stabilized as well. She'd have to ask Gay to translate some of the techno babble for her. In the meantime, she had work of her own to do. The external cameras of the hovercraft had been upgraded and modified to become the equivalent of remote controlled dSLR's, and there was going to be a lot to document in the next hour or so.

###############

Yori paused for just an instant as she waited for her fellow ninjas to catch up. Despite having started slightly later, she had quickly outpaced the others thanks to the wonderful suit that Wade-san… no, just Wade; like Kim he found the honorifics uncomfortable… had built based around her original ninja outfit. Although she'd been forced to remove certain portions before loaning him her old one to use as a model, either he and Kim's brothers had spontaneously invented a half dozen items that had taken the Yamanouchi school hundreds of years to develop, or had been devilishly clever in analyzing her old gear without her knowledge. Whichever the case, she'd been able to move just a tiny bit faster as a result, her tread more assured, and her muscles less numbed by the freezing temperature.

By the God of Seas and Storms it was cold! She could see the ice crystals forming on Hirotaka's back and shoulders in the places where the sweat was slowly leaking from inside his suit, and the temperature would continue to plunge as the valley between themselves and Castle Senior was completely claimed by darkness. Not the best conditions under which to scale the towering combination of cliff and castle wall, but at least they had all had a chance to memorize the maps of the secret tunnels inside the former prison thanks to the blueprints provided by Senor Senior Sr.

The male ninja paced up beside her.

"Your men are ready." Yori stated. There was no need to make it a question.

"As are yours," Hirotaka agreed. "We meet on the battlements."

"For the honor of our school," Yori agreed, and the two forces split apart, disappearing into the growing darkness.

############

Shego was too involved in her own project to spare more than a glance up as Kim and Ralph approached, completely absorbed in her own task of dismantling the bomb in front of her. However, the information provided by her ears alone told the green woman that while the redhead was moving quickly, it was at a greatly reduced pace in order not to cause their new "ally" Ralph to have a heart attack. To be fair, he was in excellent shape for a man his age… he'd have to be to qualify for Henching in the first place… but he'd obviously been pushed to the edges of his endurance. They hadn't had enough time to quiz the henchman in depth on exactly how and why he'd switched sides, but given that he'd accomplished more than they had so far and was obviously worried more about Bonnie than his own skin, Kim had been willing to accept his statements at face value. Shego would have preferred to take him aside for bit a more personal 'grilling,' double meaning intended, but… she WAS trying to learn to be a nicer person.

"So they're all disarmed?" Shego grunted, shifting to the right in order to let her lover drop into a lotus position on the dry work area they'd created in the middle of the snow by laying out their survival ponchos. Shego hated how exposed the position was, but right now every second was critical.

"As much as they can be." Kim replied, motioning for the panting Ralph to sit as well while unloading the contents of a bag filled with now-removed detonators and other critical components. The bombs were too big to move by themselves, but anyone who wanted to re-arm them was going to have to find a new way of setting them off. That would have to do for now.

Shego grunted what might be a sound of approval as she watched Kim's flying hands out of the corner of her eye, her girlfriend's rapid unwiring and re-priming the assorted detonators proceeding with such smooth effortless precision that Kim could have been a machine. Shego would be willing to bet that the younger woman had actually practiced performing the task while blindfolded; as the aggressiveness with which Kim seemed to throw herself into learning any new set of skills was so intense as to be almost frightening. Even going at it as hard and heavy as they had been for the last week, Shego had discovered that waking up in the middle of the night to find Kim studying or working on a project in her underwear… or less, she thought with an appreciative grin… was more the norm than the exception. However, as one of those areas in which Kim had decided she needed to rapidly increase her both her theoretical and practical knowledge was in the sensual arts, "Miss Go" was quite willing to put up with her favorite student's odd study habits as long as she was always ready for a pop quiz or oral exam.

"How's the leg?" Kim asked with just a ghost of a smirk glinting in her eyes, matching the glimmer she'd obviously caught in Shego's own.

"I'll manage," Shego sighed. Just getting off it for a few minutes had let her healing ability kick-start the mending process, but the flip side was that it now felt like it was itching inside the bone on top of the existing pain. "Given a choice I'd…"

"Guys…" Wade interrupted urgently, his image popping up in their visors without warning. "I think we've got something you need to see."

The images of Will and Ron joined Wade's as what was obviously enhanced satellite footage began to play. "This is the aircraft we spotted to the north. This is backtracked ten minutes and at four times normal speed… "

Shego kept her eye on the video, but heard Kim's soft growl as the helicopter opened fire on the skiing figures. Even with the extreme level of digital processing, the figures that stepped from the copter were unrecognizable… but knowing that Bonnie's hair was now the same color as Kim's, there was little doubt as to the identity of the person taken prisoner.

"We've identified the vehicle as a SkyVixen," Wade finally commented. "Ultra-state of the art stuff, armed to the teeth and equipped with the second best stealth system in the world. Now that we know what to look for, we're tracking its current course… and it looks like they're headed straight back to Castle Senior."

"KP," Ron was practically twitching. "We need to get on the ground now. We're totally wasted up here."

"And a situation like this is why we held you in reserve," The redhead's voice had taken on the distant tone she affected when she was submerged deep in thought… or having one of her 'hunches.' "Wade? Have those hypersonic transports you've been tracking started to change altitude yet?"

"No, not significantly…" Wade began, then his eyes bugged. "Oh damn. But they ARE slowing down."

"Which means we'd better be getting ready for a lot of company even quicker than we were expecting," Shego supplied, having made the same jump Kim and Wade had.

"Would one of you savants care to explain what you're talking about to the rest of us?" Ron inserted insistently.

"Paratroops," Will answered.

"And our schedule just got kicked forward again," Kim agreed, segueing seamlessly into her 'voice of command.' "One way or another, the air's about to get really thick with something. Ron, I'm charging you with rescuing Bonnie since you, Hirotaka and I are the only faces she'll recognize and we can't be sure about Hiro after all this time. And Bonnie is first priority. Junior's credit cards have been cancelled and we know where all of the Senior lairs are now, so if it comes down to her safety or catching him…"

"Say no more," The Monkey Master agreed, but Kim was already focusing on the new face.

"Will, I want you to stay clear of that SkyVixen… if we can see them, they may be able to see us. But when whatever's coming down starts falling, they'll be so many targets in the air that you'll look like a sensor anomaly. Take advantage of the distraction and drop Ron and his ninjas as close to the Castle as you can. Keep Jose and his men as a security detail in case you can't take off afterwards."

"Right. But if I get a chance, get back in the air ASAP?"

"Exactly. The more eyes in the sky we have, the better. Speaking of which, Wade, keep an eye on that second group of transports… Shego and I will deal that free-roaming group of henches, and we'll handle the new arrivals as they land, as well as Junior's detached troops."

"Just the two of you?" Will interjected.

"Just the THREE of us," Kim returned, turning her helmet cam towards Ralph. "Guys, meet Ralph Emerson, Bonnie's accomplice. He's on our side, but he's still in Henchco colors. I'll be giving him one of our tracker dots for identification, just in case there's some confusion. That brings us to the other issue. Ralph informs me that Junior's partner is none other than Camille Leon, so we're not the only ones who can work the fake identity trick. Make sure everyone knows that and takes appropriate precautions."

There was a quick chorus of 'yeses,'

"Okay, in that case," Kim growled. "Unless I'm misreading the movement I'm seeing to the south. I think Shego and I are about to get really busy. Kim out."

############

"MOVE!" Camille commanded over her communicator! "Attack! You've got to drive them towards us!"

Slowly at first, but gathering courage from their superior numbers, the twenty members of the southern detachment broke from the cover of the trees and began to move towards the distant figures of Kim, Shego and Ralph. Although three of them stubbornly clung to their skies, the best of the skiers had been in the group that took off after Bonnie and Ralph, so the majority had switched to advancing on foot. Far more stable when you were operating a heavy weapon, and a bit safer when you were planning on throwing grenades. Using those had been an issue at first, but Camille had been explicit in countermanding Junior's orders.

"_They just took out a Tripod you fuckheads,"_ She'd screamed. _"Do you think bullets alone are going to slow them down?"_

And in retrospect, as they approached a confrontation with the two biggest boogeyman… boogeywomen… in Henchco history, there was something to be said for having an AK-47 in one hand and a grenade in the other. Not that they felt like this was nearly enough to STOP Kim Possible, of course, but surely she and Shego would opt to take the smart way out and retreat from so many weapons. Right?

Wrong.

############

"They still heading straight for us?" The redhead asked, looking over Shego's shoulder with a raised brow.

"Yep," The pale woman responded, returning the favor. "What do you see?"

"Looks like ten of them circling to the North."

"Okay, I'll take the ten and Ralph. You got the twenty."

"So generous. You going to give me a kiss before we do this?"

"Shh! The Henchman is watching!"

"Says the woman who wants to videotape us doing it."

"Good point."

#################

"What in the hell are they doing?" Camille demanded, staring in disbelief through her field glasses. "What in the hell are they doing?"

"Looks like they're making out," her direct subordinate supplied, drooling through his own pair of binoculars.

An immediate scuffle erupted as the other eight members of the Camille's team fought for possession of the remaining two pairs.

#################

Ignoring Ralph, who was doing his best to attempt to ignore the frankly un-ignorable sight of two gorgeous women in skin tight uniforms French kissing just a few feet away from him, the heads of Global Rescue indulged in a rather spectacular display of public affection… one in which the clinginess of their fabric covering was quite thoroughly tested.

But if the display itself was a bit mind blowing, what happened mid-way through was even more over the top… as suddenly instead of Kim and Shego, it was now two Kims kissing herself.

"Wow… that was kinda awkweird," Kim 1 observed, blotting the surplus saliva on her chin with the back of her glove as they finally pulled apart.

"And yet, at the same time, kind of a turn on too," Kim 2 grinned. "What say next time you do me and I do you and we…?"

"Yes, please and thank you," Kim 1 grinned evilly. "But before we do that and each other, let's handle the current sitch, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just remember that you're my sitch, Kitten. You come back with any bullets in your sweet little ass and I'm going to be VERY upset with you. Okay Ralph, you ready to…" Kim 2 stopped and stared at the stone-faced ex-Henchman. "What's wrong?"

"Just reflecting on how the rewards for changing from good to evil may not be distributed evenly," Ralph lied. In truth, he had suddenly realized that he'd just been given a veritable goldmine of material from which to derive Kim-Shego jokes… and would never be able to post on Henchman's Life again. Somehow, he didn't think most of his stuff was ever going to make it into Reader's Digest.

And then his former fellow henchman began firing, bullets began hitting around them and he was too busy skiing for his life to think about anything else.

############

"She's CHARGING us!" one of the henchmen screamed in panic, breaking and running, as a Kim on skis plowed straight towards them.

And, indeed, to the attackers from the southern side, it did look like Kim was skiing straight for the middle of their line. But what was actually occurring was that the fading light had finally hit the point where there we no longer any tell-tale shadows. Not only was Kim not really where their eyes said she was, but the speed of the image was also being accelerated, so she was appeared to be approaching them even faster. Needless to say, the bullets being unleashed in her direction weren't doing a thing except making divots in the snow. What Kim WAS doing was sowing the ground with her real line of offense, and once she'd done that, she manipulated her lifesize avatar to reverse course and seem to retreat.

At the same time, one of the three remaining Henchmen made the critical mistake of attempting to intercept the phantom figure. Unfortunately for him, the projected Kim had no trouble skiing over the gaping crevice in the snow that he missed completely while focusing on 'her." Missed it visually, that is, as his body promptly disappeared into the yawning pit.

A second skier fell victim to exactly the opposite scenario. As he drew closer to Kim's phantom body, he found himself suddenly 'clotheslined' across the net by a set of invisible ski poles.

"_This really isn't very sporting,"_ Kim thought, as she watched her holographic decoy "disappear" around a large rock outcrop. _"Then again,"_ she thought, as her suddenly visible-again real self jumped down from the top of that rock to smash him flat beneath her skis, _"They're the ones with the guns. So screw sportsmanship."_

And with that she depressed the remote control for one of the detonators she'd rewired. Just as the line of advancing henchmen crossed the area that she'd just spent prepping with a few crude bombs made from the scavenged thermite.

The resulting whoosh of fire didn't kill any Henchman, she'd made sure that no one was directly over the improvised weapons, but they'd all be having trouble seeing for a while and more than a few had developed a serious case of hot pants.

Skiing carefully back in among the stunned and groaning henchmen, she collected up as many weapons as she could, including a half dozen hand grenades that she popped into her own personal arsenal, then disposed of the guns through the simple expedient of tossing them in a hole along with a bag of thermite and a grenade.

She checked her watch. Four minutes. Twenty Henchman down. Not bad.

"Okay Shego," She thought wryly, "Let's see you top that!"

And then she was moving back towards her lover, at maximum speed.

Just as the first parachutes started to open in the sky.


	50. Chapter 50

_Author's Note: Unbelievable! Episode… I mean, Chapter 50! I never thought this story would go this far… and yet, here we are. Just a few more chapters to go, believe it or not. Really. So… yeah. What else to talk about? Um, thanks for all the reviews, PMs, favs and so on. And if you've been enjoying this tale, I think you're going to enjoy where THE PRINCESS DIARIES is getting ready to go. Started as a Valentine bit, but is about to take a very ATCOTSy dark turn. Heh heh heh. And as this goes up, I've got THE SECOND JOB entered in Slipgate's Valentine contest, voting for which begins Feb. 7__th__. Yes, I'm shilling, but again, if you like ATCOTS, I think you'll quite enjoy that tale and it's KiGo payload. Oh, yes! There's a great illustration inspired by ATCOTS over on DeviantArt. Link is on my profile page and it's also fav'ed on my own DevArt page… yes, I finally broke down and got one under this persona. Okay, way too much talk! On to the story! Woo and extra Hoo! __**Ye Old Legal stuff: Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Senior Senior Senoir, Betty Director and Jack Hench plus all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. The Black Widows – Cholla, Frank, Moody, Dallas and Elmo are the creations of **_**Jeremy Joe Kronsberg**_** and are the property of The Malpaso Company and Warner Brothers Pictures. Do I have to say where they came from? If you can't figure out, you've made a wrong turn, Clyde. Lt. Gay Ellis MAY be the property of Gerry Anderson and Century21, but she's not saying. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Ralph Emerson, Jose Mendoza, Stevens and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. **_

##########

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 50

###########

"GO on!" Camille screamed at her remaining Henchteam, her urgency mounting. She didn't just have to catch Possible, she had to get the men away from her long enough to send a message to Hench's team. To let them know that she was here and on their side. That she ALMOST had Possible. "GET HER!"

The Henchmen looked at each other and the approaching figures on skies. They'd seen the wreckage of the tripod and knew some serious shit was about to happen to their teammates, but apparently they'd won the luck of the draw as it was Kim and that traitor Ralph coming at them. And while Possible was tough, she wasn't bulletproof. And since Camille had said a dead body was acceptable…

Plus, they'd never liked Ralph THAT much anyway.

And they had a LOT of ammunition.

##########

Ralph winced as he heard the distant sound of bullets behind them, but if the "Kim" beside him ever faltered, he didn't see any sign of it as they skied rapidly up the side of the glacier towards the smaller unit of Henchmen to the north.

"Aren't you worried about her?" He asked nervously.

"The bullets are still firing, aren't they?" Shego/Kim responded with a tight expression that would have answered the question even without a word. "If they stop before we hear a big boom, I'll worry."

Ralph was about to reply, but at the very split second he opened his mouth, there was a huge "Whuumff!" and flash of light behind them.

"See?" Shego/Kim said with a very un-Kim Possible-esque smile. "And what Princess was packing is nothing compared to what WE'VE got!"

True enough, Ralph had to admit to himself, and upon witnessing the alligator toothed glee with which his current companion was looking forward to using those deadly little surprises, he was suddenly VERY glad that he'd decided to switch sides when he had.

But those men coming towards them had their guns out and were aiming. An AK-47 was nothing to sneeze at, and if this didn't play out exactly how Possible had diagrammed it out, they'd be depending on, literally, a snowball in hell.

"Don't worry," Shego/Kim spoke in a reassuring tone. To be honest, she was impressed by the Henchman's guts… he'd done more than they could have asked already, and when they'd told him what they planned to do, they'd put no pressure on him to follow the ops plan. But his presence was the final selling point, and they all knew it. If all the players seemed to be on board, no one was going to suspect. "Just wait until they…"

"SHOOT!" Camille's voice resonated over the henchmen's walkie talkies. She didn't know why Possible wasn't trying to swerve, to run away, and she didn't like it. If it got down to a physical fight, 10 henches were never going be a match for Possible, with or without Ralph. "SHOOT DAMN IT!"

Ralph's stomach clinched as, with less than a hundred feet to go, his former teammates opened fire in a massive volley of bullets. He and Shego should have been torn to shreds by the multiple streams of liquid lead…

…except that, instead, the waves of bullets instead impacted the giant glowing green shield of plasma that had suddenly appeared twenty feet in front of Sam and the still disguised Shego. At that short distance the roaring heat rolling off the spectacular conflagration slammed into Ralph like a blast furnace, but for the ammunition flying towards them it was like flying into the path of a nuclear bomb at the second of detonation! Despite their incredible velocity, the bullets simply hit the three foot thick swirling 4000+ degree Fahrenheit wall of oscillating plasma and began to disintegrate… not completely, of course, but given that Shego was also rolling the plasma even as she projected the still widening field, the now deformed and molten bullets were thrown completely off their original trajectory. Those smoldering fragments that did make through to their original targets were easily stopped by Shego's bullet-proof Global Rescue uniform, and for once Ralph was completely unashamed to be hiding behind a woman. Dear God! He'd had no idea Shego was capable of something like this. No one had ever dreamed…

Shego chuckled as if sensing his thoughts. "Kimmie's been 'training' me to work with my control in some _unusual_ ways! You ready with the snowballs?"

"You bet!" Ralph grinned and began rapidly lobbing the literal snowballs from hell Kim had invented. The essence of simplicity, they were nothing more than plastic bags of loose Thermite that had then been packed inside a sphere of snow by expert hands that had been making snow missiles since she was four, then lovingly sealed with the slighted glazing of ice. Perfectly suited for throwing… and Ralph had thrown more than a few snowballs in his day… they were perfect for chucking up and over the heat shield. But only just barely. That way the ones that took a lower arc ran the risk turning into miniature comets as they ignited from the heat. Indeed, he was trying to get as many as he could to do just that and he could see their attackers desperately attempting to brake as the nightmarish projectiles began flaming into their path. Even more terrifying, though, were the snowballs that DIDN'T burn, as they came crashing down on the other henchmen, coating them in snow and Thermite…

Given their recent experiences with that exact same batch of thermite, it didn't take long for those unfortunate souls to realize that they'd just been turned into potential human torches, should that terrifying wall of heat get too close. It was as perfect a textbook example of turning an opponent's own weapons back against them as Ralph could imagine, and Possible had literally improvised the entire idea in seconds. And speaking of seconds…

"You've got five seconds to drop your weapons!" Kim/Shego yelled, finally dropping her holographic illusion so that the attackers could see who they were REALLY dealing with. "Or I'm going to ski right into the middle of you and start a weenie roast!"

That was the final straw. While it was a toss-up as to who might actually be the more dangerous opponent... Possible or Shego... there was no question at all as to which one was more likely to be merciful. And if Shego said 'weenie roast,' you could damn sure be sure she meant…

The entire opposing force surrendered en-masse as one, tossing their weapons away and then throwing them selves to the ground in gibbering terror. At this point, all they wanted was to escape with their lives and their reproductive organs not roasting on an open fire. There'd been way too many fireballs already, and there were things that not even Hench's legendary medical plan could fix.

"Grab one of those AK's and make sure they don't go anywhere," Shego ordered Ralph, having finally decided that not only was he on the level, but that she'd even trust him with a gun at her back. "I've got a head to cut off this snake."

############

Camille was in a state of total panic. From the second she'd seen the big explosion from behind the rise of the glacier she'd suspected that Junior's men's goose was cooked.

"Unit two, unit two!" Camille she'd demanded into her communicator. "What's going on down there?"

"Hi, this is Kimberly's answering service. I'm afraid your party's not available right now, may I take a message? Unconditional surrender might be a good idea."

"P… Possible?" Camille stuttered, staring at the communicator as if it had just turned into a snake. But if that was….

Throwing THAT communicator to the ground, she'd switched to her sat-phone and had begun frantically trying to contact Hench's attack force. Why weren't they answering? She switched to Hench's own number. "Hench, pick up you bastard… pick up…"

And then the green wall of fire erupted in front of her men and she did what she should have begun doing the second she'd heard the impossible redhead's voice on the phone.

She ran.

She didn't care where she was running, just AWAY was good enough. What else could she do? MAYBE Hench's men would arrive in a few minutes, maybe not, but if that green bitch caught up to her… after what Camille had tried to do to her… to her girlfriend…

She'd abandoned her skis, thinking that she could use the uneven ground to keep Shego from catching up with her. But that was stupid thinking. A woman running on foot isn't likely to outrun a woman on skis on flat ground, especially a VERY pissed off green woman on rocket skis who was BURNING everything in front of her like a directional forest fire. Behind her Camille heard the horrifying WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP of underbrush and roots being simply vaporized, and the as the sound got louder, the green flashes of light coming from behind her got brighter and brighter.

And the whole time she kept hitting the call button on her phone, praying for deliverance.

The force of the jade body slamming into her sent Camille flying sideways, and impacting into a tree with her shoulder was the only thing that kept her from falling. She never even saw the person whose fist slammed into her gut, or whose leg kicked her own out from under hers as she tried to get up. It was only when she was lying there, sprawled on her back, waiting for the wave of green plasma that she knew would be the last sight she ever saw, that she actually had time to register Shego's presence.

And the former villain did NOT look happy.

"I… I…" Camille started, tears flooding her eyes.

"Excuse me, Camille?" Shego snarled. "Were you going to ask for _mercy_?"

Camille had been, but now knew better than to ask. She started to sob instead. She was going to die, oh God, she was going to die!

"Do you know what temperature a human body burns at, Camille?" Shego asked in a very odd tone. "The furnaces in crematoriums run a little under 1800 degrees Fahrenheit… oh, wait, this is Europe, so that's about 980 centigrade. At that temperature, the flesh, the bones… even the teeth, are all reduced to ash."

Camille's sobs became uncontrollable as the green face of death stepped closer.

"Of course," Shego continued in that strange, cold tone, "I can burn a LOT hotter than that. Better than twice as hot, thanks to some training with my princess WHO YOU FUCKING JUST TRIED TO KILL!"

Camille screamed as she found her entire body lifting into the air, pulled back into a vertical position a single green clawed hand that held her in a death grip.

And then she was dumped back onto her feet.

"Fortunately," Shego continued with a malevolent glare, "I'm a better person than you are these days. Amazing what sleeping with an angel can do for one's temper. So, lucky you, you get to live another day."

"Wha…?" Camille blinked back from the edge of her terror. "Wha…?"

"But…" And the words were dark with menace "There's something you're going to have to do if you want to live…"

Still trembling in terror, Camille finally dared to bring her eyes to meet the monster's face… and Shego's grin was so evil that Camille was sure she was just being played with. So evil that she couldn't even believe the next words she heard.

"Strip, you bitch."

"What?" Camille's gasped. "What?"

"Take off your clothes," Shego repeated slowly, as if talking to a very slow child. "I want you naked in 60 seconds or I'm going to be even angrier with you than I already am."

"But… but… HERE? Now?"

"55 seconds. Do I have to start breaking parts of your body?"

"But I'll FREEZE!"

"I can make it plenty hot for you. 50 seconds."

Camille started pulling off her clothes.

###############

"MOVE IT! MOVE OUT!" Cholla bellowed from inside his oxygen mask, as the 24 para-assault troops filed toward the hypersonic transport's drop bay in preparation for the biggest series of HALO dives any unit of Henchco troops had ever undertaken. Technically Cholla's unit commanders should be calling out the jump orders, and no doubt that's exactly what Moody, Dallas and Elmo were doing in the other transports, but Frank, Cholla's number 2, knew the boss liked to keep his hand in and was a more easy-going sort than most of Cholla's mercenaries… at least until he had a weapon in his hands. And his attention was better focused on readying one of the force's two Armored Transports…

Correction, HAD been better focused. Even as Cholla had made the thought, the massive vehicle had disappeared through the gaping the hatch with Frank at the wheel.

Cholla waited five seconds to make sure it was clear and then threw his arm over his head and motioned the entire squad to hit the air!

"GO!"

It wasn't until he was halfway down to the Earth himself that he noticed that his communicator had been beeping. Well, too late now. He'd call the local contact once he and his men were on the ground and moving.

#################

Camille was completely naked and shivering as her former henchman Ralph entered the clearing.

"Whoa!" He gasped, and turned around, showing a surprising amount of consideration.

"The others all secured?" Shego asked, apparently in the process of taking a series of snapshots of Camille with her Shego phone.

"Uh… yeah, I, uh, I've got them tied up in a ski shelter just over that rise," the Henchman stammered. "But we've got chutes coming down. Black with red hourglasses and that's BAD news."

"Bad bad or really Bad?"

"Worse. Those Black Widows are psychos."

"Okay, give me just a second to finish our centerfold here and I'll send a call signal to our illustrious red headed commander."

Ralph nodded anxiously and began pacing, trying NOT to look at the naked Camille, who was now in the process of turning blue.

He waited a beat and then finally HAD to ask.

"Er, exactly what are you doing?"

"A little addition to the plan that Kimmie came up with once she learned that our shape-changing friend was part of the package. Whoops, there's Wade. Pow wow time."

###################

Kim was halfway up the rim of the glacier as Wade's image popped back up in her peripheral vision.

"We've got Chutes, Kim."

Yeah, I see 'em," Kim grunted, unable to loosen her grip on the packed ice and rock. She COULD have gone around, the same way Shego and Ralph had, but if she really pushed herself this would be faster. "What do you make of them?

"Looks to be about 100 troops, plus 4 vehicles," Wade rattled back. "Two fast attack vehicles… possibly modified Chenowth Scorpion DVPs. Two armored troop transports of unknown design."

"They're Chenowths alright," Shego confirmed. "Wade, Ralph says the ATTs are Leviathans and that our new friends are an elite group of Henchco Shock Troops codenamed the Black Widows."

Wade's eyes narrowed. "The same ones that saw duty in Sao Paolo last year?"

"Ralph says yeah," Shego nodded.

Wade's flying fingers was already sending data across the inside of Kim and Shego's visors. "These guys are tough, Kim."

Kim remembered the news coverage of the events in Sao Paolo. Ruthless is the word she'd have used. But it's easy to be that way when you have state of the art equipment and you're fighting civilians armed with improvised weapons.

Of course, Kim thought, some civilians could improvise a little better than others. And the effectiveness of a force was only as good as their chain of command.

Heh heh heh.

"And you've got those samples from Camille's phone processed?"

"Sure have. Every number she's called in the last five days. The last four of five were alternates to an unknown number and, get this, Jack Hench's personal phone."

"My my," Kim muses. "Shego, would you inform Camille that's she's been a very naughty girl."

"I think she knows that princess. She's a cold, ruthless bitch. Emphasis on the cold right now."

"Wait, are you STILL taking pictures of her?"

"You can never have enough data," Wade and Shego chorused, though only Shego finished with "kitten."

"Uh… right. Shego, I think you're becoming a very bad influence on Wade. Well, finish it up as soon as you can. And… hold on, can you turn on your external and let me talk to her?"

Camille's pathetic, naked and shivering form popped into her viewscreen. For a brief second Kim found herself torn between pity and understanding why Shego was being so thorough… not bad at all. Then she realized that maybe Wade wasn't the only one that the green woman was being a bad influence on, made a conscious effort to pull it all back in, then hit 'project' on her own broadcast.

################

Camille flinched as Kim Possible somehow, impossibly, flickered into reality in front of her. It had to be a projection, she thought dimly, the same kind that Shego had used to pose as Kim.

"Hey Camille, how's it going?" The projected Kim asked. "Just chilling?"

"Fuck you Possible," She stuttered through chattering teeth.

"Sorry, I'm a one girl girl," Kim kept her smile calm and professional. "And so is Shego, however much she might be tempted by that goose-pimply body of yours. Right, dear?"

"Yes Princess."

"Still," Kim continued. "We don't have a lot of time and apparently a bunch of friends of yours are on their way here. No, don't bother to deny it. We've recorded every transmission going into or out of this valley for the last two hours, so even though you didn't get through, we heard your muttering to yourself over your open sitcom line. Bad habit that."

Kim waited for that to sink in. "So, coupling your maneuvers with what's going on, we know that you called the force that's landing now. I imagine Junior would be almost as upset with you as his father was when we learned from Ralph that all of Junior's henchmen thought there were working for the Senior Sr. I wonder how Junior could have pulled that off… hmmm."

Kim blew it off, "Well, I could just turn you over to Triple S… who is currently staying as an invited guest at Global Rescue in the company of Doctor Director… but I am a good girl except in bed."

"When she's magnificent," Shego whispered with a grin.

"So what I'm going to do is to give you a chance to do what you do best: betray people, and turn on both of your current employers."

"And then I'll have HENCH trying to kill me too!" Camille snapped. "What the hell makes you think I'd do something as stupidly suicidal as that?"

"I can see Shego has been too busy taking pictures to explain WHY she's been doing it," Kim's projected image mock-scowled at her lover. "You'll do it because if you don't…"

Camille gasped as Kim's image suddenly turned into a perfect replica of Camille's own naked body, which was quickly wrapped in a duplicate of the arctic gear she HAD been wearing.

"…then I will," The image that had been Kim finished in Camille's own voice.


	51. Chapter 51

_Author's Note: YES! _Episode… I mean CHAPTER… 51! For those who haven't read my profile or the apologies on some of the other stories I've put up over the last few months I apologize once again for the long delay. The combination of a broken shoulder + subsequent physical therapy, a LOT of outside writing work and travel, and, finally, a bunch of other plot bunnies that attacked have resulted in this story hitting the backburner… until now, that is. For all of you who'd waited, for all of those who've left reviews and for all of those who've helped drive this story past the 107,000 hit mark, thank you for waiting and enjoy! _**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Jack Hench, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Bonnie Rockwaller, Adrena Lynn, Dash, Crash and Burn aka Team Impossible, Brick Flagg, Will Du and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Ralph Emerson, Jose Mendoza, Stevens and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

##########

**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM**

Chapter 51

###################

"Get those chutes stowed!" Cholla screamed as the first of his Black Widows frantically raced to set up stop-gap defensive positions in the landing zone even as their fellow troops were still fluttering down from the sky. Although no enemy forces were currently visible, any hostiles looking to take out the task force would have their best opportunity now, while the Widows and the handful of Henchco regulars they'd had to pull in to fill out their ranks due to the last-minute nature of this op, were still literally tied down amongst the swaying tangle of ropes and black and red cloth that swirled around them.

And that there were significant enemy forces present _somewhere_ was beyond obvious. To the south, half the forest separating the glacial field they'd landed on from the lake beyond was on fire, the hellish orange light now brighter than setting sun to the west, tinting the glacier an eerie shade of red. Closer, between the forest and the edge of the main ice, what was clearly… as impossible as it seemed… a Lowardian Battle tripod lay on its side, legs twisted at impossible angles in the middle of a still-smoldering blast crater, while multiple smaller blastmarks across the snow had been visible from the air. Abandoned trucks across the top of the glacier gave further evidence of hostile units in the area, though the troops themselves seemed to have wisely made themselves scarce in the presence of the airborne assault.

In short, the place looked like the _aftermath_ of a battle rather than the beginning of one, and any hope of coming in without attracting the attention of what, to Cholla's experienced eye, appeared to be at least two heavily fortified opposing enemy forces, had long gone up in smoke… It was just dumb luck that they hadn't parachuted directly into a crossfire from one or both combatants. At least they'd managed to surprise them THAT much.

Not that that didn't mean that those forces weren't currently hiding somewhere at the edges of the forest encircling Cholla, forming neat little 'x's over the Widows with the crosshairs of their sniper-scopes. No, the amount of battle damage already exhibited by the combat zone, coupled with the knowledge he already had of competing teams and the complete lack of nearby cover, meant that every other operational objective was currently secondary to the Widows' need to get the hell out of this potential shooting range before they became the targets.

And it was at this exact moment, the _worst_ possible time for any distractions, that his command communicator decided to start trilling again… although this time, the notes were those of the dreaded Imperial March from a certain old sci-fi saga; what Cholla referred to as the "Executive Ring."

'_Damn it!'_ The Black Widow Commander grimaced as he pulled the jet black field phone from the hourglass marked holster on his hip. He hadn't answered his master's buzz while in mid-jump, and whatever Hench had to say obviously wasn't going to wait… not that Cholla was about to keep the one person on Earth who scared the crap out of Cholla waiting in any case. The Black Widow leader had always considered himself to be an exceptionally ruthless individual, but the very reason for the Widows' existence was proof that he had nothing on the head of Henchco. To be sure, the formation of the Widows had demonstrating that the formation of private, for profit mercenary force could be run as an extremely profitable sub-division of the diversified Henchco conglomerates without raising many legal issues, (even when they committed the occasional 'lapse in judgment'… thank you Blackwater for showing the way…) but the real reason for the creation of the Widows showed a level of callousness that even Cholla found staggering.

Which didn't change the fact that, if there was one thing his boss should know, it was to let the professionals do their job and micro-manage later, not interrupt right when everything is going to hell!

"There are some changes in your mission priorities based on new intel," the voice of the devil hissed into Cholla's ear… it was just a side effect of the electronic alteration, necessary in case some genius managed to intercept and decipher the scrambled transmission, that made it sound exactly what the Black Widow commander had always imagined Satan would sound like, but the eeriness of it still made his gut clinch and his balls shrivel. But what really sent new worry coursing through the mercenary's veins, Cholla realized, was that, even through all the processing, he could sense a definite difference in his master's tone this time… a tone that began with the invocation "Case Zeta."

##############

Hidden only by the deep shadows enshrouding of one of Castle Senior's many rocky abutments, Hirokawa watched the escalating chaos unfolding around him with amazement. Why, he wondered, when everything was obviously going to hell, someone in charge didn't step in and DO something?

Of course, the fact that this all worked to his and his fellow Ninja's advantage made it technically a good thing… what Master Sensei would call a sign of benevolent portent… but it still grated on the young shadow warrior's professional sensibilities to watch henchmen who were _supposed_ to be manning Castle Senior's forward positions running back and forth like chickens with their heads cut off. Granted, Hirotaka had never been very impressed with what he'd seen of the men Henchco provided to begin with, but about the only thing that could make him think much lower of these troops who were supposed to be in charge of Senor Senior Jr.'s outer ring of defenses would be if they were wearing clown costumes… and even that would make for only a minor drop in his esteem.

Haven't their commanders ever heard of the 'fog of war'? Apparently not, as Junior's men had been visibly unnerved when the first huge explosion went off to the east, and the sighting of a Lowardian Tripod and its subsequent apparent at the bottom of a second big ban had left them barely hanging onto their self control. However, with the visual observation of what could only be troops on parachutes drifting in from the sky, they had completely lost it. None of the castle's defenders seemed to be sure who or what the new arrivals were, reinforcements or an attacking force, but a phrase Hiro had now heard repeatedly, 'Black Widows,' seemed to be driving the Henchco troops into a crazed frenzy that could only be adequately described with a quaint phrase Hiro had once learned from his simian-obsessed comrade Stoppable-san. Yes, 'Ape shit crazy,' seemed the PERFECT term for this insane madhouse.

On the other hand, Hirotaka had been pleased to see that even though his own side had been dealt an equal number of bizarre reversals, the plan Possible-san had created was specifically designed to thrive under this sort of confusion. As a student of 20th century military history, Hiro had needed no explanation to understand what a 'turkey shoot' was, though he'd been more than dubious that anyone could pull off anything as ambitious as Kim and Shego were attempting… let alone under the circumstances that fate had handed them. Yet, so far, the combination of strong leadership, rapid thinking and communication and, most importantly, well trained and well prepared professional bodies on the air and in the ground had let them adapt as quickly to the instantly changing circumstances as any human could dare hope. Though Hirotaka didn't have one of the latest generation Kimmunicators like Yori's, he had been given an older model that was cross-linked into hers, so as soon as it was learned that Bonnie was no longer inside the Castle, he and his fellow ninja commander were instantly updated by their 'eye in the sky' team of Wade, Du and the two younger Possibles. Cross-conferencing with Kim confirmed that taking the Castle would still be a major mission objective, so once they had verified that the 'double extra-secret' entrances the elder Senior had informed them of were still undiscovered, they'd begun to systematically strip men from the lidar, radar and defense arrays. The one problem with that, unfortunately, was that they had to leave the appearance that someone was manning those positions they were clearing…

Speaking of which, Hiro thought, as a yet another panicked Henchman ran past…

It didn't even require any ninja skill, Hiro sighed with disgust. The fighter only had to stick his hand out of the shadows and the fool slammed throat-first into his arm in the maneuver westerners called a 'clothesline.' Grabbing the now unconscious henchman's body in his iron-like grip, Hirotaka quickly pulled the man back into the shadows and began to strip him of his uniform.

##############################

"I said Case Zeta," Hench repeated to his suddenly silent hatchetman, wondering at the sudden silence on the other end of the line and wishing he had a video feed so he could read his chosen commander's expression. "Do you acknowledge?"

"Yes Sir," Cholla's voice responded after a second, as if he'd never missed a beat. And he hadn't, of course, Hench realized. The delay had been due to the extremely complex but theorhetically unbreakable encryption being used on the signal, multiplied by the multiple satellite bounce required to take his orders halfway around the world without using any conventional land or sea lines. That same encryption was also the reason they were working audio-only, Hencho's researchers having not quite cracked the application of the same algorithms to video.

"Yes, Case Zeta. Understood," Cholla's response to Hench's second query arrived with the same delay, followed by a briefer, more natural beat and then: "I'm sorry sir, but we're right in the middle of landing and things are… would this intel have to do with the hyper-transports we detected behind us?"

"It does," Hench confirmed. "We have reason to believe that force coming is composed of Henchco units assigned to Gemini. Given the timing and the circumstances, it is logical to assume that their mission goals and objectives are the same as your own. Obviously we cannot allow them to succeed, but at the same time we can't afford the PR debacle that would occur if we were to breech our existing contract with WEE. Therefore, while the capture or termination of Possible is to remain your primary focus, to simplify the paperwork and any legal issues afterwards, you are to adopt Case Zeta with ANY other forces you encounter on the ground."

###############################

Gut churning, Cholla nodded to himself. He'd expected as much when he'd got the initial tag to go into this sausage grinder. After all, the PRIMARY reason for the recruitment of the Black Widows was to create a separate unit completely apart for the main body of Henchco Troops, one with the specific training and orders to eliminate the company's other units should a time come when it was determined that it might be dangerous, expensive or simply too 'messy' to allow those personnel to continue to exist as a security risk. The now adopted Case Zeta specifically authorized Cholla and his men to eliminate not just any opposing forces they deemed necessary, without the prerequisite for a demand for surrender first, but also any of Henchco's own men who showed any hint of opposition to the action. That was ideal, and preferable in Cholla's mind… there was nothing like seeing the first troublemaker summarily executed with a bullet to the back of the head to snap the others into line… something that would be an important motivator when they found out that part of their assignment would be take out other Henchco employees.

"And civilian witnesses?" Cholla asked, just to reconfirm although he already knew the answer.

"I think we'd be better off with none of those," the devil's voice replied, "The only exception is your local contact. Her information may be vital to rapid penetration of the Senior's security. After the target is obtained, of course, Zeta applies to her as well…"

"Understood," Cholla confirmed. "That won't be a problem sir."

"In that case, I'll let you get back to your work. Good luck and good hunting, Commander."

###########################################

Breaking the contact abruptly, Hench kicked away from his desk and he stared forward into space, his mind seeing nothing but red. Not red as in blood, but as in ink**. ** In one short three minute conversation, he'd just written off not just all of Gemini's men, but all of those assigned to the Seniors as well… and could probably expect to lose a good number of Cholla's forces as well.

'_Damn Brotherson to hell!'_

This was going to be a very expensive day.

###########################################

"_The only exception is your local contact," _the digital recording repeated._ "Her information may be vital to rapid penetration of the Senior's security. After the target is obtained, of course, Zeta applies to her as well…" _

"And that's your future with Henchco, Camille," Kim's projected image looked at her partially redressed prisoner as she huddled outside the tiny ski-shelter where they'd sequestered her now unconscious men… Shego had finally relented and let the woman put back on her thermal underwear once they'd made complete scans of everything. "I'm not sure what Case Zeta means exactly, but given the context, I don't think it's the kind of retirement plan you want to look forward to. Ralph, did you get any more out of that than I did?"

"Besides the feeling that I switched sides just in time, no" Ralph shook his head with a shell-shocked expression.

"We'll keep working on it," Wade's disembodied voice added. "Once we got into the coded transmission, we cracked three new layers into Hench's security."

"As always, you rock Wade," Kim smiled thinly at her friend on the other side of the planet, then turned her attention back to the skivvie-clad shapeshifter. "Now let me explain exactly what YOU'RE going to do."

############################

"I demand to know what is going on out there!" Junior screamed, apparently unaware of how poor for morale it is to see the nominal commanding officer throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of his own control center. "Where are all those parachutes coming from? How can you not know these things?"

"We don't know sir," the poor soul who'd drawn the current shift as the Com Center Control Officer fired back in exasperated tones. "Because whoever they are, they've obviously got better technology than ours and they're jamming everything. All we've got is visual data and that…"

The Henchco employee stopped. He didn't know for sure that it was the Black Widows… though the images coming in from the cameras' visual data certainly seemed to imply that's who it was… but if it WAS them, then that implied that Henchco was running a double game and he wasn't sure where he was supposed to stand on that issue. After all, Henchco was his permanent employer, and if he were to reveal his suspicions to his Junior, who was only a temporary employer, he could be violating the terms of his own contract by commenting on a potentially secret Henchco operation while employed on a different assignment. Let some other poor fool take the heat for spilling the beans.

"…that indicates that it's some kind of mercenary force. They're probably after the same thing that we…"

"SIR!" The communications officer suddenly interrupted. "Senor Senior! I'm getting an urgent message from Ms. Leon!"

"Put it on," the control officer snapped, pathetically grateful for the interruption at just that second.

"…_got her!"_ Camille's voice was saying. _"Repeat! We've got Kim Possible!"_

"WHAT?" Shrieked Junior, oblivious to the fact that he was speaking over her. "You've got her?"

"She can't hear you unless you press the red button!" the communications officer yelled back, rushing across the room with a handset.

"_Multiple wounded,"_ Camille was saying. _"For God sakes! Send some help…"_

##############################

"…_before Shego finds us again!" _

Burn blinked. Not trusting the tied up girl on the floor's information, Dash had ordered Crash to fly the Skyvixen to this point just north of the castle while Burn set up a surveillance scan of all the communications channels… a plan that while well thought out, had gone to hell when someone had dumped every kind of jammer he'd ever heard of on them at once. The sudden appearance of paratroops only complicated the situation, especially as it was obvious that Senior's poorly trained troops had no idea who or what was dropping in as well. Practicing the better part of valor, the Vixen had gone invisible and was currently waiting in stealth while they reevaluated their options… in fact, that's exactly what Lynn and Dash were arguing over at the moment.

In the meantime, Burn had been running through all the com channels for the last five minutes, trying to crack all the encrypted signals flying back and forth with little luck, but that last one had come in free and clear.

"Dash! Ms. Lynne! Listen to this!" Burn shouted to the others,, flipping the communications channel he'd been monitoring onto the main speaker.

"_Where are you?"_ Junior's voice interrupted. _"You've got her? You've got Possible?"_

"_That's what I said, didn't I?"_ Camille screamed. _"And we're in the goddamned woods to the east of you!"_

"Camille!" Adrena gasped, recognizing the voice immediately. "How the fuck did that bitch…?"

"SHHH!" Commanded Dash.

"_Our com guy is dead and half of us have third degree burns! Can't you lock in our signal?"_

"I don't know if they can do that, but I sure can," Burn chortled under his break as he triangulated the source of the transmission with the push of a button. "Crash, the coordinates are on your screen."

As one, Crash and Adrena looked at Dash, who looked right back at Adrena.

"That was Camille Leon? The one who was supposed to be your partner?"

Adrena nodded tightly.

"Well then, looks like she got back into the game and you get to screw her over twice," Dash chuckled, barely holding a huge shit-eating grin in check. "Let's get in there and take Possible before any of our new friends get a chance to play!"

######################

"How soon will our men get there?" Junior demanded.

"No more than ten minutes," the control officer replied vaguely, his mind more focused on how to re-position the men they had. They'd sent another 20 men as reinforcements, which when coupled with all of the others who'd already been sent out was leaving Castle Senior with far too few men to effectively patrol the entire area that had to be defended. Almost a skeleton detail, really. And given that the men outside on the guard and defense positions had to stay where they were, that meant the only recourse was pulling more men off of the interior castle patrols. If someone actually managed to get in the castle, the few men remaining would be hard pressed to stop them… of course, if someone had gotten that far, it wasn't likely to make too much difference in the end.

#####################

Bound, gagged and almost naked, Bonnie lay on the floor of Skyvixen, shivering. The woman named Adrena had conducted a thorough search of her after they'd taken her on board the helicopter, and the one eyed bitch had apparently considered it easier to simply cut her off snowsuit rather than let her take it off herself. Once satisfied that there were no weapons or lockpicks concealed on Bonnie anywhere… including in places that Bonnie would never have considered putting ANYTHING… they'd simply tossed her in the corner, hands and feet cuffed and both sets of cuffs hooked together behind her so that her wrists and ankles were pulled up together behind her back. She'd expected to be raped at that point, but it hadn't happened, and Adrena had left her underwear mostly intact. It wasn't that the interest wasn't there, however, it was just that her captors all had more important things to do.

With the news that Kim had been captured, she'd been _almost_ forgotten. Almost, but not quite. The heavier set one named Burn had looked over at her once with the same sort of expression that she'd once tried so hard to arouse in Brick, the Mad Dogs' quarterback. The same way that Junior had looked at her the first time he'd seen her with the red hair.

"Sorry sweetness," He'd leered. "Looks like your value as a bargaining chip may have just gone out the window."

He didn't have to say anymore for Bonnie to know what he meant. It was all she could do to keep from vomiting into the strip of her own clothing that they'd used as a gag.

And yet, with all of this to think of, what kept repeating through her head, over and over, was the shock that someone had somehow captured Kim. She'd gathered enough information now to know that this went way beyond Junior's own sick little plot, that there was some kind of huge bounty on her fellow former cheerleader's head.

And apparently, coming to save Bonnie had somehow led Kim straight into someone's trap.

But these psychos who'd captured her were now apparently planning to try and take Kim. If they succeeded in taking down whoever had Kim, that might give her a chance to…

"We're coming up on the coordinates," the one called Crash, the pilot announced in unsually soft tones. "Going to full whisper mode."

"Burn," Dash responded. "Anything on thermal?"

"No… yes!" Burn corrected himself. "Multiple signatures. Twenty degrees at 1000 yards, just over the next ridge."

"Load gas canister in the auxiliary cannons and let's go in slow," Dash ordered instantly. "Standard rounds on the sniper guns, but we want to get in as close as we can before we start shooting."

"After all," He added with an evil grin to Adrena. "We don't want Possible to be TOO shot up before Ms. Lynn gets her little dance."

Exactly what that meant, Bonnie wasn't sure, but given the way that the woman had been going over her seemingly endless assortment of knives while the men had been prepping a large selection of rifles, machine guns and other strange devices, it couldn't bode well.

Desperately, Bonnie's eyes roamed around the helicopter's cockpit. There had to be something she could do… but what?

"Okay, let's make sure we've got who we think we do," Dash was ordering. "Bring us up slowly for a visual confirmation and put it on the main screen…"

########################

"Where the hell are they?" Hench #93041 wondered aloud... although a better question might have been what was HE doing there? The shakey Henchman who'd found himself placed in charge of the pick up expedition knew he was out of his depth as a team commander, and sending just two trucks and less than two dozen men to retreive Possible when they knew Shego might still be out there seemed insane. On the other hand, he knew that the control op back at the castle had had little choice. Senor Senior Junior had flatly refused to leave the castle in the face of the paratroops that were obviously planning to stage some kind of assault. A quick snatch and grab to get Possible, Leon and the most seriously wounded of the Henchco troops seemed the only logical course, and anyone who didn't fit on the bus was going to be finding their own way back to the base.

IF that's what they decided to do, he reminded himself. Someone with half a brain might just decide that the best place to be right now was anywhere but here. "I got lost in all the confusion and went south when I should have gone west," would be a perfectly acceptable story if someone reported back to one of Henchco's European offices in, say, a week or so. Yes, someone with half a brain…

"We should be getting close," the driver of his nominal command vehicle informed him. Because of the hostile forces in the area, they'd kept communications between Leon's unit and theirs to a minimum, but rough triangulation had indicated that they must be coming down one of the winding paths that fed into this shallow valley.

#93041 crossed himself… he wasn't Catholic, but given the bad vibes he was getting off of this, every little bit help. In fact, just to be safe… he quickly made a Star of David and an Ankh as well.

Thirty seconds later, it happened.

##############################

"Yes!" Adrena exhulted in triumph as the long range cameras snapped into sharp focus on the group in the depression ahead of them. There was no mistaking the redhead and blonde in the center of the ragtag group, the former clearly restrained and in shackles.

"Gas 'em!" Dash commanded, but even as Crash's hand went to the firing toggle, every single danger and warning system on the SkyVIxen started to go off at once! Ringing bells, flashing lights, blaring klaxons! The sudden overwhelming sensory barrage ALMOST distracted Dash from his target and his face shifted from triumph to rage as the Henchco troops started running impossibly fast for wounded men… impossibly fast for almost anyone over the icy rock and snow covered terrain.

And then the entire ship was SMASHED downwards, as if struck by a God's hammer! Crash didn't even have time to scream "We've lost lift!" before the ground raced up to meet them and SkyVixen collided with the rocks below.

#############################

"Yippie Ki Yi Yay!" screamed Will Du as he pulled back on the thrusters that kept Global Rescue One from hitting the ground on top of the swatted SkyVixen. The bottom of the GR aircraft was a mess but structural integrity had been retained, so Shego PROBABLY wasn't going to kill him… but it had been Kim's idea once it became clear that it was the ONLY angle it would have been safe to attack the state-of-the art attack craft from. Not even SkyVixen's sensors could detect the Rescue Vehicle in full stealth as it had hovered thousands of feet over it, and then a simple kinetic drop had brought GR One's landing gear straight down into the helicopter's rotors. Now his job was to get the hell out of there before someone on SkyVixen thought to launch some kind of counterstrike… assuming the ship was still capable of that. Taking care of THAT was the job of the ground team.

############################

"Looks like it's our turn!" Ron Stoppable grinned as the images of Camille Leon and Kim that had surrounded him and the ninja standing next to him unraveled into nothingness. He and his Yamanouchi brothers had been sitting on the sidelines far too long, and he had a very personal bone to pick with the pilots of the stolen helicopter. With a quick extension of his wrist, the Lotus Blade rippling into being in his outstretched hand. "Let's see how long that armor can stand up to this can-opener!"

"Yamanouchi ATTACK!"


	52. Chapter 52

_**Author's Note:**__ Just a side note for those who hadn't noticed, the ATCOTS universe just got a little bigger with the integration of two more side stories. The first, PUTTING IT ON, wasn't originally intended to be connected, but when I started working on the follow-up, BRINGING IT ON, I realized that they WERE connected, and it will have some interesting ramifications with a part of the story that I've been a bit mum on for the last dozen chapters or so… oh yes, I think you'll like how that turns out. __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Jack Hench, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Bonnie Rockwaller, Adrena Lynn, Dash, Crash and Burn aka Team Impossible, Will Du, Hirotaka, the Yamanouchi Ninjas_ _ and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Ralph Emerson, Jose Mendoza, Stevens and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

##########

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 52

#########################

"Kim!" Ron's voice yelled inside her head. "They're moving on us now!"

"Back up plan!" Kim fired back, knowing that even as she spoke the ninja named Hideki was taking her place at the base of the holographic deception that Ron and his team were deploying. She'd planned on being there already, being the one to dodge the fire if necessary, but somewhere between the rocky terrain, the continuous abuse and repeated explosions, her rocket skis had given up the ghost a half mile back and for the last two minutes she'd been on foot. Damnit! Too many things going on at once. "Will, give them the kiss as soon as Wade's projections say it's safe. Ron, get your guys to safety as soon…"

"We got it KP, no time to chat!" Ron cut off her off, though she could see both his and GROne's points of view as reduced images in her visor. To be honest, she was grateful she didn't have to talk and run… her lungs had been burning since she started running up the last ridge. Normally no big deal for a girl her age and in her shape, but that was before taking her newly re-broken ribs and internal bleeding into account. Given that Shego was carrying out HER part of the plan with a broken leg, Kim hadn't felt her own discomfort worth mentioning, but she was definitely feeling every bit of battle damage she'd incurred in the last few days. God, just one more ridge and then, once this was all over, the two of them could find a nice beach or hot spring someplace and let the pain soak away…

She saw the flashes in her visor before she heard the sound of the Vixen's guns echoing from over the hill ahead… but Ron was already yelling "Scatter!" and other instructions in Japanese, while Will was simultaneously dropping in to execute the crazy idea she'd had… her team had it covered. They knew what to do.

And speaking of which, Team 2 was about to drop its own bombshells…

################

Hench #93041 stared at the frozen landscape and looked back at his driver. Something was very wrong.

"Stop!" He ordered, holding his hand outside the window to motion for the truck following to do the same.

"What is it, sir?" His driver looked up, puzzled.

"We must have gone too far," The leader scowled, motioning towards a rising outcrop of stone and the high walls of the valley that encircled the road they were on… a road that he knew turned UP the mountain a few hundred feet more up the road. "They'd have had to go to the south to get around that, but based on that original signal, we should have met them before now."

"Perhaps the problem is that you didn't know who you were supposed to meet," the driver returned smoothly.

"Huh? What was that?" 93041 turned back around and almost lost control of his bowels upon seeing the machine pistol aimed at his head. "What the f…?"

"Order your men to step out of the vehicles and lay their weapons down," Hirotaka smiled. "Otherwise I am afraid that my friend Agent Mendoza and his men on the hill will have to use those mortars they have trained on us."

The deadly chill that 93401 had felt envelope the base of his spine upon looking down the barrel of the weapon held by the man who he'd somehow never realized he'd never seen before only increased as he followed the ninja's head motion towards that same rock outcrop he'd noticed, only to see row of four figure suddenly appear from the snow. They'd been invisible due to improvised ghillie suits made of pine branches and snow, but now that they'd moved, he could also see the bazooka like weapons they had aimed directly at his position… directly into…

Oh shit.

"If you would please hurry," Hirotaka nudged. "I fear my Global Justice friends have what you call itchy fingers, and while my ninja training may allow me to survive being exploded, I do not believe I will enjoy the experience very much."

It was a partial bluff, of course. Mendoza's men's weapons were actually armed with knockout gas canisters, but Hirotaka… who had seamlessly replaced the original driver just before they left the castle… hated the headache that stuff always gave him. And besides, he really didn't want to miss out on the big finale.

################

For a brief, terrifying second, Bonnie felt her body start to leave the cockpit's floor as the Skyvixen fell out the sky beneath her, but that momentary sensation of weightlessness came to a painful end as she slammed back to the floor a fraction of a second later as sparks exploded across the interior of the cockpit, emergency lights flashed and her four captors screamed/gasped in harmony as their bodies also absorbed the impact! With a shock Bonnie realized that the helicopter must have been only a few dozen feet above the ground the ground when whatever had hit them had hit them, but that comprehension had no sooner crossed the surface of her mind than she was forced to focus on more important things like trying not to snap any bones as the suddenly canting angle of the downed craft sent her skidding/rolling across the metal-screen floor. Her limbs screamed in agony as the handcuffs refused to give and the front of her body became one giant scrape, yet amazingly the only major casualty was her bra, which snagged on something somewhere along the way and stripped off like a rubber band shot from a sixth-grader's forefingers just as she impacted the wall furthest from the exit hatch.

And then everything became TOTAL anarchy as everything went red… some kind of safety shields had covered all of the ports and windows at the moment of the original hit, and all that was on now were the crimson emergency lights.

"What the FUCK was that?" Adrena was screaming as she tried to tear herself out of her safety harness. "I thought this thing was fucking indestructible!"

"Undetectable!" Dash corrected at the top of his lungs while Burn offered his own "I don't know!" at a matching 100 decibels, and Crash joined in with a "This is impossible!"

"Well something found and hit us with SOMETHING," Adrena snarled, severing the straps that had locked during the collision with one of her vast array of knives. "And you fucking know which bitch it was!"

"Goddamnit, stay cool Adrena," Dash was out of his own seat as well, still hanging on to the headrest to keep himself from following Bonnie's sliding path to the far wall. "They may have knocked us down but we're still locked and loaded!" To Burn "We ARE still locked and loaded, right?"

"The starboard guns, yeah," the heavier man huffed, his fingers flying across the safeties as he disengaged all of them. "Trying to get our external lights and cams back on now!"

"Good," Dash wasn't wasting any more words on Burn, spinning instead to Crash. "Keep the blast shields up, but as soon as you've got visuals, shoot anything that moves! I don't know who those guys were, but there's no way they can get in here…"

Dash's voice cut off in a strange eeping sound as the whole cockpit suddenly HEAVED back in the other direction, causing the tall black commander's tight pull on his seat to suddenly be far too much pull in the wrong direction.

"We're falling again!" Adrena freaked!

"No! The wreckage is shifting!" Burn yelled as the Vixen continued to tumble.

"The fuck it is," Crash screamed! "Those fuckers are ROLLING us back the other way!"

"SHOOT!" Dash commanded in wild panic, "Just shoot everything!"

"I'm trying!" Crash was hitting every weapon control he had… he should be spraying lead everywhere, but he was getting no response at all! "Nothing's working! It's like the guns aren't even there!"

###########################

"And here goes the last one!" Ron grunted as he swung the Lotus Blade again, this time completely taking off the last of the external machine guns. "Give me just a second and then I'll start opening this can of sardines for you!"

The assembled Ninjas needed no further instructions, backing away from the battered hull of the helicopter they'd been rolling as their leader completed gelding it.

###########################

Now completely forgotten in the chaos, Bonnie found herself rolling across the floor again, but this time her new position put her eyes even with something she hadn't noticed before. A red lever at the bottom of the wall, next to a panel that didn't seem to serve any purpose except as… an emergency exit! Yes! There was a smaller etched panel beside the lever. Explosive bolts…

"Everyone arm yourselves," Dash was ordering, even as he was strapping on an insanely huge machine gun. "We've got more firepower in here than they could possibly have out there."

"We're going to shoot our way out?" Crash gasped. "Are you nuts?"

"Do you know how many years we'll do if we're caught with the remains of the Vixen?" Dash fired back. "I'd rather make a break for it. It's not that far to civilization."

"Good point," Burn acknowledged, heading for the rack with his favorite flame thrower, then stopping and pulling out a quartet of gas masks. "Just in case."

Bonnie stared at the red lever. Could she activate it, as tied up as she was?

And then she was staring at a pair of boots.

"What about the girl?" Burn asked, looking down at Bonnie with apparent regret for lost 'opportunities.' "Hostage or liability?"

"If that's Possible's bunch out there," Dash mused, "She'd be a shield at first. After that, though, she'd just slow us down."

"Then take her, slash her as soon as we've gone a safe distance…" Crash began.

"No," Adrena suddenly snapped. "I've got a better idea. Give me some of those detonators."

#########################

"Commander Cholla! We've located the local contact."

Cholla looked up from the contour map of the local terrain as a group of his forward scouts came back towards him at double-time, escorting what he assumed was a slim young woman in a heavy parka. Damn, he hoped the intel she had was really going to be worth the trouble of putting up with her, as she was obviously in poor physical condition. No… he revised his opinion, as he saw that she was being partially supported by one of the regular Henchco troops. She was obviously in completely shit poor shape.

"Camille Leon." The Black Widow commander forced a face smile onto his face. "My employer hadn't informed me that you were injured."

"If your employer answered his phone more quickly," Leon snarled, "Maybe I wouldn't be. My men… Junior's men, that is, just tangled with Possible and Shego less than ten minutes ago."

'_And obviously got your collective asses kicked,'_ Cholla added mentally, though he didn't say it out loud.

"But," the villainess added quickly, "I know exactly where they're going and the route they're probably taking."

######################

Shego watched the Widow Commander's face carefully. She'd drawn the lot of playing Camille for this round due to the fact that she was the closest physical match, a precaution that turned out to have been a wise one indeed, given that she'd already been patted down three times. Fortunately, she was wearing Camille's actual clothes, so the image of that that was being overlaid by the Shegophone's projector was currently effectively only overlaying her face and skin tone… well, that and disguising itself so that it was invisible sitting on top of her head, a place no one ever thought to frisk. As it was, though, she could be stripped naked and still appear to be Camille. That HAD been the point of her impromptu photo session with Ms. Leon, afterall, hadn't it?

Well, mostly she grinned inwardly to herself. Shego, you are a BAD girl.

"Okay, where are they going?" Cholla bit. "Castle Senior, right?"

"No, though that's their second priority," Shego lied smoothly, pointing at the inferno still raging to the south and then to the matching point on the map. "Their top priority was to put out that fire over there… that's how Junior lured them here in the first place. If it keeps burning, this whole glacier will destabilize and end up in the lake. THAT's what they came here to stop. Catching Senior Junior will come after that."

Cholla's eyebrows shot up at that and in that instant Shego knew could read him like a book. She knew he had to be aware of the next set of transports coming in, so this was just one more fire that had to put out… in this case literally.

"Fuck!" The heavyset commander growled. His men had been digging in since they'd arrived and NOW he was learning the place could be a death trap? But if they pulled up stakes and tried to move now, they'd be caught with their pants half up…

Or… Shego could see him working it out, just like Kim had hoped he would without Shego/Camille prompting him too obviously…

"DALLAS!" Cholla bellowed at the nearest of his unit commanders.

"Yes Sir!" The scruffy looking subordinate appeared instantly, a nervous, ratty look in his eyes.

"Take a couple of marksmen, a mortar squad and as many of the Bazaalt AsP-500m's ll as you can cram in an ATV, get as close to that fire as you can and lay down suppressive fire until it's under control. Be aware that Possible and Shego may be in the area and shoot to kill if you can, otherwise herd them into the range of an Bazaalt."

"Sir, yes sir!" Dallas snapped to attention, then dashed off.

"An AsP-500m's a Russian fire-fighting bomb," Cholla informed Shego, who already knew exactly what they were but had to play the role of Camille, who probably didn't. "Basically they suck all the oxygen out of the air. If Possible and Shego ARE down there, that'll finish them off."

NOW was the time to get antsy, Shego judged. "But we should send more men, Shego and Possible are…"

"I'VE got more pressing business at the moment, Ms. Leon," Cholla had already dismissed her for the moment. "IF I have to make a raid on Senior, I'll need you for intel, but in the meantime you're just in my way."

The Black Widow commander motioned to two of the men who'd been standing guard. "Take Ms. Leon to the Com-Wagon and let her sit in the back seat. It'll be warm and we'll know where she is."

"Sir!" The guards saluted, then motioned for 'Camille' and the Hench supporting her to precede them towards the armored van at the center of the camp.

"_That couldn't have gone more perfectly,"_ Shego gloated as she rested her weight on the man beside her. They'd actually managed to trick one of their opponents into doing one of the jobs they hadn't had the time or the resources to do themselves, while at the same time making the first split in his forces. Best of all, she was going to get a chance to sit and rest up her broken leg for a few minutes. The former villainess was beginning to suspect that her girlfriend might be a witch as well as bewitching, but she didn't dare get too confident just yet. With her Shegophone in a place she couldn't actually reach at the moment, she was effectively cut off from the rest of the team until 'Camille' had the opportunity to let her hair down in private. Still, things seemed to be going spectacularly well.

#############################

"BOOOOM!"

Ron leapt away just in time as the main hatch to the fallen helicopter suddenly blasted off of its own accord… thank goodness for the mystical twinge of magic monkey mojo that had made him pull back a fraction of a second before he'd been about to open it himself. Even as he was rolling in the ice and snow to avoid shards of flying metal, he knew what had happened. The explosive bolts securing the door had been fired - Wade had warned them about those, which was why nobody had been near the door when it went, but it was a sign that things were about to take a serious turn for the worse.

Sure enough, the door hadn't been blown off for half a millisecond than a handful of fragmentation grenades came flying out afterwards in a wide V of destruction, spewing more flying shrapnel followed by a couple of gassers and smoke bombs. Within seconds, visibility was down to zero and then ANOTHER pair of frag grenades went off in the cloud even as Ron was starting to rise! _'Damn!'_ he swore, kissing the snow again. He MIGHT be able to avoid the worst of the damage with his Mystical Monkey Power, but there was no way that the rest of the Yamanouchi could dare get anywhere near this barrage… If Mendoza's men had been here instead, their body armor could theoretically have been better able to handle this kind of firepower, but the determination had been that the Ninja's speed and ability to disappear had given them the better chance of surviving a strafing by the helicopter if something went wrong, while the next phase…

But that could wait 'til later. Whoever it was in there obviously had a plan for getting out of their rat trap and Ron didn't want to risk the wrong people getting hurt accidentally. Not when whoever he was up against clearly knew what they were doing.

"Modotte taizai!" He ordered quickly in rapid Japanese. "Stand back! Nariyuki o mimamoru!"

"I see someone has sense," A deep male voice called out of the smoke. A voice Ron remembered from somewhere. "We've got a hostage. Watashi-tachi wa hitojichi o motte iru! Anybody tries to stop us leaving, she dies!"

And he wasn't bluffing, Ron realized, the man's rough but understandable Japanese once again forcing him to up his opinion of his opponent. Better to wait and see what options might present themselves than push desperate people into doing something rash. Especially desperate people who were obviously working to some kind of coordinated plan.

"Ooookay…" He ventured carefully, looking up into the now dissipating mist to see the forms of two men and a woman standing about ten yards from the chopper, all holding what appeared to be remote controls. A third man was closer to the copter, patting something into the snow. "Why don't you tell us what you want?"

"No," The man who'd been speaking countered. "First, I'm going to tell you what we HAVE."

"First, we've got three remotes, dead man switches, to a bomb inside the Vix… the helicopter. A bomb that's sitting right next to your pretty little friend. If anything happens to any of us, that bombs going off and… well, she won't be so pretty anymore."

By this point the smoke had cleared enough that Ron could recognize who he was dealing with, even with their concealing gas masks, and his brain hit a scratch like a broken record. It couldn't be. It couldn't be! Team Impossible were supposed to be good guys! And was that… Adrena Lynn with them? Who the hell was it that was calling the shots in this game that they could get supposed heroes working with crooks? Not that Team Impossible were all that clean, Ron remembered, and they were armed to the teeth. He just hoped Kim was getting all of this relayed to her, because he was now officially way out of his depth.

###############################

Dash grinned. Adrena's little improv was nothing less than inspired and it was working just as well as they had hoped. Now he just had to sell the rest.

"Go ahead and stand up Stoppable," he told the ninja-clad young man. "I want you to see something."

He waited until Ron had stood, then saw his reaction as he saw what had been done inside the helicopter. Red beams crossed everywhere… everywhere except a small area towards the back, where a hogtied girl and gagged girl lay on her side, eyes wide in terror.

"Yeah…" Dash laughed. "You remember this one, don't you sidekick? That's a McHenry Laser Grid… a couple of models up, but basically the same thing your partner cracked to steal her first job from us. And then, just to make things interesting, we've also just placed several anti-personnel mines directly outside the main hatch."

"Now, the deal," He continued, relishing Ron's glare of anger, "Is that we've also got the remote for that. Once we've made out escape, we'll shut off the grid and you can get your friend if you get around the AP Mines. Shouldn't be a big deal for ninja like you, right? On the other hand, if ANYTHING touches that grid before then, it's bye bye Bonnie. Got it?"

"Got it," Ron growled. "And how do we know we can trust you to not blow the bomb first?"

"Well," Dash admitted, "You don't. But you DO know that we WILL blow her to kingdom come if we think you or any of your friends here are following us. And I should point out that while your ninjitsu is impressive, we've got a lot of automatic weapons, grenades and a flame thrower to even the odds. So I guess it's a case of better the Devil you don't know than the devil you do."

"So," Adrena added, waving her remote pointedly. "You gonna tell your posse to let us pass or not? Or do we put a Bonnie in the oven?"

Ron hesitated… just a fraction of a second… then made a quick hand motion and the ninjas who were visible parted to the south.

"Wise man," Dash nodded as he, Adrena and the rest of Team Impossible cautiously began their long walk back to civilization. "And just to make sure we're clear, no one follows us or..."

"Right, right, we understand," Ron gritted painfully, turning to look at the trapped Bonnie. Damn, she had to be freezing in those… those clothes that she wasn't wearing. But… he couldn't do anything until he was sure the Impossibles were out of hearing range. As soon as they were, however, his Ron-com was in his hand.

"Did you get all that?"

"Yeah," Kim's voice seemed oddly out of breath, though her image seemed fine. "Wade, do you think you can jam the transmitters on those dead man switches?"

"I'd be scared to death to try," Wade evaded. "That many signals and no clue to what the frequencies are, let alone the codes…"

"Understood," Kim sighed. "Looks like we need to bring in the secret weapon. Go ahead and call them in, Ron. I'll catch up with you as soon as I can."

"Right," Ron acknowledged. "Um… and exactly what will you be doing?"

"Keeping you an honest man," the redhead grinned.

"Huh? What?" Ron had seen that look on his best friend's face before and he really didn't think he liked it.

"You promised them that no one would follow, Ronnie," Kim's grin had taken on a distinctly Shego-ish smirk. "You never said that no one would intercept."


	53. Chapter 53

_**Author's Note:**__ And another one. With this chapter, we pass the 250,000 word mark by ffn counting. I think it's a few thousand short of that in reality, but even so… it boggles my mind that this has gone so far. And we're almost there… __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Jim and Tim Possible, Gemini, Nanny Nane, Doctor Director, Rufus, Jack Hench, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Bonnie Rockwaller, Adrena Lynn, Dash, Crash and Burn aka Team Impossible, Will Du, Hirotaka, the Yamanouchi Ninjas_ _ and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Ralph, Jose Mendoza, Stevens and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

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AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 53

##########################

Gemini fidgeted in his seat and stared past the pilots and out the wide viewscreen at the front of the hypersonic troop transport. The fact that they had been moving multiple times faster than the speed of sound did nothing to ease his anxiety that his last great opportunity was slipping away from him.

"This is taking too long," He whined for what the other occupants of the forward cabin would agree was the 36th time. "Someone's going to get Possible before we do!"

Nanny Nane simply gave him the same cold look that she had the last 22 times he'd said the same thing, pushing down the urge to drop him out the airlock for the 17th time. What was the point in explaining that braking from hypersonic took time and, unlike the forces ahead of them, they were actually going to have to land, again? Honestly, she mused, it was a wonder that the simpering little fool had somehow managed to live this long. Between his infantile self-fixations and habit of eliminating subordinates, it seemed almost incredible that someone hadn't simply snapped his neck out of sheer irritation… but, then again, his primary opponent had always been his sister who, as competent as she was in many other ways, still lacked the ability to separate the fact that her brother was family from her handling of him. Had Sheldon's WEE ever gone against someone as ruthless as his former nanny, he would have been reduced to a grease spot a long time ago. Exactly as she intended to see that he eventually would be, once this little game was finished. Nane could almost feel the snapping of the vertebrae as his scrawny neck would twist in her gnarled but still impressively powerful hands. Oh yes, little Sheldon wasn't going to be long for this world…

And neither would whoever selected the pieces for this little game, she added. Just as soon Nane had the money in her pocket and a way to cover the trail. Bad enough that they obviously knew way too much about her own past to suit her, but given that there wasn't a single villain on the planet more likely to get on her nerves than Sheldon, the deliberate pairing of her with him had obviously been an act of calculated insult and offense, intended to give her nothing but grief. From the second he'd started their so-called partnership by flushing money down the toilet with his massive hire of Henchman rather than a smaller team of specialized mercs, to his 'saving' funds with weapons from Colonel Chaos' Weapons Surplus Shack, half of which turned out to be literal antiques, he seemed determined to go about everything in the least efficient way possible. At least most of the old communist block armament had ended up being workable after a lot of elbow grease was applied, but they had wasted quite a bit of ammunition double checking. And, of course, there was the ongoing drain of the Henchco Payroll. Fortunately all of that was on Sheldon's Plutonium card, because once they'd received the bounty on Possible, she was damned if any of the ill-advised expenses he'd incurred before her arrival were coming out of her pocket. Which, except for the advance hiring of the transports, was all of them.

Which brought her back to the situation at hand. The fact that their rivals were using paratroops had given them an incredible advantage in terms of both speed and flexibility, one that Nane found especially galling since, as an ex-paratrooper herself, she should have anticipated it. As it was, as soon as it had become obvious that the team of transports ahead of them was clearly going to get to the target first, she'd opted for a wait and see approach, trying to get a better idea of what she'd actually be facing on the ground before committing irrevocably to landing under hostile fire. Unfortunately, during all that waiting there'd been very little seeing… her usual contacts within Henchco had disappeared, satellite surveillance was almost completely locked out and there was enough transmission and radar jamming going on in the area that it could hide a second Lowardian Invasion. To top it all off, the one thing that she WAS absolutely sure of was the identity of the force that they had followed in. The Black Widows were by no means the toughest mercenary force on the planet… in fact, Nane suspected that she and her usual knitting circle buddies could take them out with a little advance planning… but they were a good step above the Henchco goons she was stuck with, and they were utterly ruthless. Now that their decision to parachute in had both gained them more time AND secured the most advantageous landing zone, they were going to be a very hard nut to crack.

Nane growled softly and chewed her Kevlar dentures with irritation. Her natural inclinations were against going in with as little advance intel as she had; with a small trained team of real mercenaries and a stealth assault vehicle it would have been one thing, but the WEE troops and their hypersonic transports would be sitting ducks for anti-aircraft fire. The men were expendable, of course, but the value of the rented transports combined would reduce the profitability of the entire operation to practically zero once all the other expenses had been met. And unlike standard Henchco units, she doubted that the Black Widows would hesitate to blast them out of the sky if they had the opportunity. That meant far more restraint was required then she would have normally employed, which was a good part of the reason Gemini was getting so anxious.

All right, she was getting anxious too. And for all his whininess, Sheldon was quite correct that someone else was bound to get Possible first. In fact, barring an incredible stroke of luck, Nane was beginning to consider that to be inevitable.

But… then again, as she'd oft delighted in telling her young charges when taking away the coins and other treasures they'd discovered, finders weren't necessarily always keepers. Especially when the finders had already been bled dry in the act of doing the finding by the previous keepers, and a newer, fresher finder came along. And in this case, a trophy was a trophy… all that mattered was who handed the head over, not how it had been obtained.

Enough. Decision made.

"Contact all the other transports," She ordered her own pilot, then indicated a spot on the map display. It had originally been an emergency fallback in her mind, but now it was clearly the safest option… safe being a relative word. "We're going in now… and we'll be landing here."

The pilot's eyes followed the finger, then back to her grim expression, as the color completely drained from his face.

"I've read the specs. These transports CAN do that, right?" Nane asked icily, waiting for his shakey nod of 'yes.' Perfect. If HE thought it was unlikely but doable, then the odds were that no one else would have thought of it either.

And then, no matter who got Kim Possible first, Nanny Nane would be the one who got her last.

##########################

"_Possible,"_ Kim thought to herself, running as quickly across the snow covered forest floor as she dared, _"You have a big mouth… not to mention a habit of writing checks without looking to see how much you have in the account first." _In this particular case, she'd been doing a little analysis on the video of Team Impossible as she angled towards where she assumed they would be heading and things weren't looking so rosy. To be honest, she hadn't expected them to be carrying that much heavy artillery, and unlike the Henchco types she'd gone up against earlier, the three members of TI were formidable opponents even without the machine guns, flame thrower and God knows what kind of small arms. Tossing Adrena in for good measure only made things more dicey. Even if she'd had Shego to back her up… and, to be honest, was a little less wrung dry herself… it would be tricky. As it was…

Okay, it was probably suicide. If she just charged in there, anyway. Even if she pulled out every trick Kimmunicator could generate, Team I were sharp and they'd already seen a little of what her holograms were capable of when they attacked Ron's team. Between the three of them, she couldn't count on more than a few seconds worth of distraction, and after that the tech advantage went to their side. Relatively low tech compared to hers, of course, but when it came down to it, a hunk of lead would kill you just as dead as a laser and probably hurt a lot worse.

Still, she mused, never dropping her pace as she hurdled over a small ravine filled with ice, anything was possible for a Possible… she just had to find another way to bend the odds in her favor. Moreover, if she let this group get away, she'd just have to deal with them again at a time when they had the advantage of surprise. That said, the first order of business was going to have to make sure she DIDN'T run into Team Impossible until she'd managed to pull a few more rabbits out of her hat. And when you needed magic, there was only one place to go…

"Wade?" She asked into sub-vocal mike, "What's the sitrep?"

"Secret weapon's been dropped off, Team 2's taken their first objective and those transports we've been watching have been slowing down, which means they must be planning to land but we don't have an exact eta," Wade came back quickly, "But I imagine you've been listening to the traffic and knew all that, so what did you really want to talk about?"

"Team Impossible," Kim admitted. "Is there any way you can track them while they're on foot? I'm thinking something like heat signature, maybe?"

"Actually…" Wade replied thoughtfully, "That we can do. The sats that Jim and Tim tied us into for our overview are D.O.D. anti-ibm birds, so their thermal tracking's even better than their visual. I can't tell you which member of the team is which, but their gear is still fairly warm from being inside the copter so…" He popped the thermal view display so it appeared in her head's up display. "There we go. That's where they are."

"Beautiful," Kim grinned, because it truly was. Not only were the four green blobs representing her quarry placed on the sat-view, but her own position was noted as well. "Wade, you rock!"

"Er," Wade flushed. "Actually, that was your brothers, this time. But this may not be a long term thing… they're wearing better than average thermal gear, so the longer they're out in the weather, the more their exteriors are going to cool. At some point, all we'll be picking up is their heads, and that's a pretty small target to track if they get under heavy tree cover…"

"Right," Kim nodded. So she'd have to figure some way to even the odds before they lost the ability to track them, and that window was already shrinking. It was too bad that none of her targets had opted to bring along some heated socks or those gloves with microwaveable inserts…

Wait… that was a crazy idea, but…

"Wade? Would one of the satellites Jim and Tim hooked be a HERFsat by any chance?"

"Huh… uh well… Oh. Oh!" Wade grinned. "Why yes one is, and if you're thinking what I'm thinking Kim, you are an evil woman."

"Yeah," Kim sighed. "Looks like the green is starting to rub off. So, you know what I've got in mind. Can you manage it?"

Wade cracked his knuckles in anticipation. "Piece o' cake."

##########################

Carefully… oh so carefully… Ron lowered himself onto the back of the Skyvixen, using every ninja and monkey-fu trick he had to make his actual contact with the vehicle as light as possible. Sure, those Team Impossible asshats had only said that there anti-personnel mines in front of the entrance, but neither he nor his ninjas were about to take any chances on setting off some other trap they'd set up.

When nothing blew up underneath him, he let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding and slowly crab-walked to the spot directly outside the door, then took a deep breath, held and blew, using the vapor from his own condensing breath to check for lasers or other trip-switches. Due to his ninja preferences, he wasn't wearing a helmet like Kim… he preferred his hand-held Ron-Com… but a full manual sweep from infra-red to ultra-violet failed to reveal nothing, as did a second scan done peering over the edge. Finally, convinced that there was probably nothing outside the hatch to trigger something lethal, he let his head drop over the doorframe so that he could see Bonnie directly.

"Hey BonBon…" He began, and then it was all he could do to keep a fake smile plastered on his face. He'd had issues with the cheerleader in the past, but no one deserved to be treated as she obviously had been. The bondage pose she was handcuffed in and the gag in her mouth would have been bad enough, but her face was badly scraped on one side, she was missing a fingernail and the parts of her body that were exposed were covered with bruises… which was all of it except for what was covered by her badly abused panties, and… Oh geez…

"Igottago!" He ejaculated suddenly, disappearing back the way he came.

##########################

'_Oh what the hell now?'_ Bonnie thought as Ron made a strange expression with bulging eyes and then immediately vanished, leaving only the afterimage of a totally red face behind him. What the..?

Oh, Bonnie realized. She'd forgotten her bra had stripped off during the crash… and it was a sign as to just how cold she was that she hadn't really noticed that those portions of her anatomy were now just as frozen as the rest of her. On the other hand, it wasn't as if most of those interested hadn't seen her tits by now thanks to her multiple photoshoots, so while Stoppable's show of chivalry was thoughtful, her personal modesty was pretty low on her list of priorities right now.

"Gatbeeeaaatrrragggg!" She yelled in exasperation, the best she could manage for 'get me out of here' around the edges of the ball gag. She knew enough about the predicament she was in from listening to her captors setting it up to know that neither he nor she could touch the beams that surrounded her like a maze. She'd been puzzling over the problem and actually had some ideas, so the fact that the gag was making it impossible to communicate that information was the ultimate icing on the cake.

"It's okay, Bonnie, I'm not looking!" Ron had finally returned, though he was ridiculously holding one hand over his eyes as he dangled upside down in front of her. "Everything's gonna be fine, but… uh… just in case you don't know, you don't want to touch any of those laser beams around you. That would be bad."

Bonnie's best 'no shit, Sherlock' expression was obviously lost to Ron, but she made it anyway, rolling her eyes.

"Right," Ron was saying. "Now just hold tight and try not to move as we send the expert in, okay?"

"Ogay!" Bonnie grunted, then felt her stomach do a queasy dip as Ron lowered in 'the expert.'

In retrospect, Bonnie realized, that it was a good thing that she'd already decided that the old Bonnie had to go, as that bitch would have found this to be the final straw. Of course her karma hadn't been skewed enough just to have to be rescued by Kim Possible. She'd already sucked that down. Even being rescued by Ron Stoppable was something she'd be able to come to terms with. No, destiny had obviously been determined that she, Bonnie Rockwaller, was now going to have to eat every single bad word she had ever spoken about any of her former arch-rivals posse, and would forever owe her life to, among many others, a small pink, naked mole rat.

"H'roo!" Rufus waved, then began the task of navigating the maze of deadly beams that kept his larger partner from entering the wrecked vehicle.

##########################

It had been a slow mission for Rufus until now, though that had been completely by design. The truth was that naked mole rats simply are not designed to handle sub-freezing climates well… originally hailing from the arid climes of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, they were, in fact, unique among mammals for their bodies' lack of ability to regulate their own temperature, with his species' normal adaptation to cooler weather being to nestle together in large groups or in sun-warmed parts of their enormous underground burrows. Normally Ron's pocket served this function for Rufus, but all had agreed that sending the mole rat out with Ron under the current situation was probably unwise, as no one really wanted to find out if it was possible to unthaw a moleratscicle.

So, instead, Rufus had spent most of the mission inside the hovercraft curled up in a small pouch on Cyn's lap, soaking up her body heat and conserving his own for an eventuality just such as this. Truth be told, he'd slept almost the entire time, as that was what usually happened when he was warm and comfortable and he liked the way Cyn smelled. However, when the moment finally came for him to do his legendary thing, he was still the best infiltrator on the planet… and Team Impossible's laser grid had clearly not been designed to stop someone who was only three inches tall when he walked on all fours.

"N'Big!" Rufus smiled as he ducked the latest beam to present itself as an obstacle. Getting to the annoying one, as he'd always personally thought of Kim's self-appointed arch-rival, would be ridiculously easy. The difficult part would be figuring out how to switch off the laser grid, so that was his first priority. He didn't see any extra remotes or anything lying around, but he COULD see several of the laser projectors. Unfortunately, each and every one of them seemed to have some kind of booby-trap attached… his sensitive nose clearly made out the scent of PE4… similar to C4, the British-favored plastic explosive was not something that the molerat felt he should be messing with if he didn't have to. So what next…?

"Eeey! Oberhergammit!" the tied up cheerleader hissed around the ballgag in her mouth. "UGtibee! Fagawdzake!"

Rufus looked at the bound female and it suddenly snapped. Of course! She was wanting her top clothing piece. For some reason human females seemed to find the loss of those almost unbearable… and come to think of it, his own human seemed to be having a lot of issues with her bared mammaries as well. Looking around, Rufus spotted the discarded bra lying on the floor in the opposite corner. Not a problem, he thought, hopping in that direction…

"Ngggggg!" Bonnie screamed as she realized where he was heading, "Ngggdagggg!"

##########################

"Pick up the pace, Burn!" Dash snapped over his shoulder, ignoring the look of anger on the stockier man's face as they trudged up yet another snow covered ridge.

"Damnit," the heavily sweating accountant turned action hero turned assassin swore back, "You try carrying the goddamn flame thrower!"

"Your choice of weapon," Dash scowled, hefting the M60E4 he'd opted to take as his own main defensive piece. "And by the time we add in the extra ammunition we're carrying, it's damn near as much."

"Yeah, just suck it up," Crash added. This was hardly a new argument. While Burn was in excellent shape for a man his weight, Dash and Crash had always been able to run rings around him. Of course, neither of them were half the accountant he was, which was a huge portion of the real reason that Team Impossible had managed to stay in the black, despite the free competition from Possible.

Burn didn't even bother looking at Adrena for sympathy. If he pushed hard he might be able to swing her to his side… but then again, she also had been insisting that they re-think their plan to completely skip the area once they had the chance to steal local transportation. Only the combined arguments of all three men working together had convinced her to keep heading with them towards the town south of the dam. "Yeah, well if those ninjas DO come after us, you're going to be glad we've got an area weapon."

"They're not going to come after us," Dash argued. "Not as long as Stoppable's in charge and we've got the rem…"

The huge explosion from behind them cut him off.

As one, they all turned back in the direction they'd been coming from. Was it their imagination, or could they already see a trickle of smoke on the horizon?

"Well," Crash deadpanned. "I guess they tried to get her out."

"Aw fuck!" Burn groaned, looking for the thin column of smoke that would mark the final passing of the SkyVixen. "How long 'til those ninjas can catch up with us?"

"Too damn soon," Dash growled, breaking into the long, loping stride that had given him his nickname. Adrena was on his heels in seconds, followed by Crash. It took Burn exactly that long to figure out that, burdened as he was with the flame thrower and his already heavier bulk, he was being left behind as a hopeful distraction.

"You mother fuckers!" He screamed, starting to plow forward through the snow and almost immediately falling flat on his face. He came up, gashed forehead bleeding and eyes filled with ice, but shoved himself back to his feet and started moving again. His so called partners were already gone, but their tracks were easy enough to follow in the snow. He'd catch up eventually and then…

He wasn't expecting the red headed explosion that slammed into him.

Burn croaked in horror as he found his air supply cut off by the rapid chop to his windpipe, and then even that was taken away as Bam! Bam! Bam! Three rapid punches, two to the gut, one to the face, sent him reeling.

"Sorry," Kim said, not looking sorry at all, "But I don't have time to hurt you as much as I'd like."

The last thing Burn was conscious of was a way-too-close crotch shot as Kim Possible's right foot slammed into his left cheek. He never even saw the packed snow that broke his fall and his nose.

Reaching into her utility pocket, Kim pulled out a seat belt cutter… specifically designed for cutting canvas straps, she'd had it as a backup since the HALO jump and had decided that it would be a far safer way of cutting off Burn's flame thrower than her lipstick laser. A quick slide over each side, pull, and the device was off. Three pairs of zip ties came out of the same pocket, secured Burn in a fashion almost identical to how they'd bound Bonnie. As a final touch, she activated a tracking dot and taped it to the small of the unconscious man's back. That left disposal of the flame thrower… she hefted it under one arm and set off in pursuit again. No doubt she could find a safe place to stash along the way.

"Wade," she subvocalized into her internal mic. "The flame thrower's out of the picture, so we're set as soon as I can ditch it."

"Got it. Wade growled inside her head. "They didn't seem real upset about Bonnie, did they?"

"No," Kim agreed. She'd been watching while in full stealth from a nearby treetop as Team Impossible slowly began to turn on itself. Any latent sympathy or reluctance about what she was about to do to them had disappeared with their complete lack of grief or even guilt. On the other hand, their little internal squabble was music to her ears. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand,' and all that, and she was definitely in the mood for a little house wrecking,

"No," Kim repeated, "They didn't. I think it's time to light the fire under their asses."

####################

Bonnie sat in the cab of the truck, shivering, as she looked at the remains of the helicopter. She wasn't even shivering from the cold anymore. No, this was anger. Pure anger. How many times had people already tried to kill her today? She'd completely lost track and it was only thanks to the mole rat that was currently nestled between her breasts that she'd managed to survive yet again.

He'd been trying to get her brassiere when her repeated cries of "Mgag! Mgag!" had finally made sense to him and he'd sprinted through the laser maze and up onto her shoulder. After puzzling over the locking mechanism for a few seconds, Rufus had opted for the simpler solution of gnawing through the strap and she'd finally been able to speak. THAT had allowed her to tell Ron that she didn't care if he was getting free peeks or not, but there was a panel beside her with explosive bolts. A few seconds later and one of the ninjas was relaying the advice to "Stay calm and not move" (as if she COULD, between the handcuffs and her muscles locking up) and then Ron's sword was amazingly cutting out the panel from the other side, with Rufus and the ninja relaying instructions to Ron when his sword started getting too close to a beam.

And then, just like that, they were easing her out the side of helicopter where Ron cut the handcuffs off of her. Then things had become a little blurry, though she remembered them intentionally blowing up the helicopter to keep whatever was inside it from falling into the wrong hands, and at some point someone had come up and given her a cup of hot chocolate and a Henchco jumpsuit to wear. The former had been the best thing she'd ever tasted, the latter had puzzled her for a moment until she noticed that several of the ninjas and another group of men who she eventually figured out were Global Justice Agents, were all pulling them on as well. No one had explained what was going on and she hadn't bothered to ask, yet. It was all like coming out of some very long, very bad dream, and still not being quite sure that the dream was over.

"How're you feeling?" the woman named Cyn asked, offering the thermos again… she was part of the Hovercraft team, if Bonnie recalled correctly.

"Like shit," Bonnie admitted, eagerly accepting the refill on the cocoa. "But at the same time, really, really good…" She fought for the right word and finally found it: "Safe."

"That's a good word," Cyn agreed, "Though we'll need to evac you and Rufus out of here before the next set of fireworks begins. But before we do that, there's someone who wanted to talk to you."

Bonnie followed Cyn's head nod to a figure dressed in a Henchco jumpsuit. Then did a double take.

"Hirotaka!"

The ninja's lingering question about whether his only American girlfriend would remember him was answered as she leaped into his arms. Rufus barely had time to leap free before being caught in a press most human males would have found enviable.


	54. Chapter 54

_**Author's Note:**__ Yes, it's been nearly two months since the last ATCOTS update. Work and travel slammed me again… 8 cities and nearly 25,000 miles of air travel in six weeks, followed by the San Diego Comic Con, ate up most of the precious little spare time that I'd hoped to have to write in. But August will be better; just putting this up makes it better than July, right? Oh, and I know I'm in no position to ask favors, but it looks like ATCOTS and some of my other stories might be up for a Fannie or two, so if you're so inclined, I'd appreciate folks voting for their favs (not just my stories) over at the Kim Possible Discussion forum… __**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Jim and Tim Possible, Adrena Lynn, Dash, Crash and Burn aka Team Impossible, Nanny Nane, Gemini, Jack Hench, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior Jr., and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

##########

AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM

Chapter 54

##############################

"We can still pull up!" The pilot urged as the leading hypersonic transport came in at the nearly impossible angle that Nane had ordered.

"Say that one more time and I'll let Sheldon handle your dismissal," Nane snapped, her lips drawn back in a predatory grin, then turned to the co-pilot "And you, be ready to take over if that becomes necessary."

Face as pale and drawn as his senior's, the co-pilot gave a spasmodic jerk of a nod, not daring to take his eyes off his instruments… though whether that was due to the need to focus on the advance radar, or fear of Gemini or Nane herself, was up for grabs. Probably the first and last combined, given that the nominal commander of WEE was currently curled up in a fetal position in his seat, attempting not to wet himself.

To be honest, Nane wasn't completely sure whether they were actually going to be able to pull this off or not, but she'd survived this type of landing before even when the pilots had failed, and THIS time they were going in with an aircraft that was still structurally sound. The real question, however, was whether their opponents on the ice were going to have enough time to shoot them down BEFORE that, since the ONLY path that gave them a chance of pulling this off was going to take them right through their enemy's cross-hairs.

#################################

"Godamnit!" Adrena swore, tearing at the collar of her jacket as she ran, pulling it open so that the cold air could poor in. It was one thing to leave that fat fuck Burns behind, but Dash and Crash were getting way too far ahead of her. Didn't they remember who was in charge here? Who was the link to the money they stood to earn? How DARE they abandon her?

But as angry as she was, she knew that she'd be out in front if she could run as fast… if she could just catch her own breath…

Which was why she was so surprised when Crash suddenly did stop. But that was only until she saw WHY he had stopped… as he started screaming.

###################################

"Kim," Wade's concerned face appeared inside her visor. "We may have a problem. Those transports we've been tracking are finally coming in and… well, look."

Kim slowed her jog to a fast walk in order to focus on the computer projections being traced against a contour map of the valley.

"Damn," Kim marveled, almost whistling at the sheer audacity of the incoming force. This was the kind of out of the box plan that SHE might have come up with, which meant that whoever was in command of that force was either brilliant or crazy… or both. "And if they're going to do that on the way IN, one has to assume that they think they can do it on the way out too."

"It's still too hard to be sure with all the jamming," Wade nodded, "But the few peeks we've got are consistent with the new KVG-Mk II Hyper Transports, which theoretically CAN do it."

"Then we need to wrap up as many of the current operations as we can before they do," Kim agreed, trying to think out a dozen threads of possibility as quickly as she could. "We just can't cover enough ground to take on three armed forces at once, and I don't want to think of what the body count will be like if we let them all go at each other unprepared."

"You know," Wade frowned, "Most field commanders would consider it a GOOD thing to have their enemies shooting at each other."

"Most field commanders aren't heading up an organization called Global RESCUE," Kim shrugged, "And as far as I'm concerned, this is still a rescue, not a military op. So if there's anything we can do to minimize the chances of anyone from being hurt or killed, we have to try."

"Just remember that that 'anyone' applies to you as well," Wade reminded her gloomily, knowing full well that his boss was going to forget her personal safety completely just as soon as the next combustible situation arose… and speaking of hot spots…

#############################

"Fire!" Dallas yelled, the high pitch of his voice barely carrying over the raging inferno. Not that he actually needed to give the order; the mortar team he'd brought down to the edge of the forest fire had eyes as well.

BwAAAMMPFF! BwAAAMMPFF! BwAAAMMPFF! BwAAAMMPFF!

The combined team of mortarmen, snipers and plain old henches that Commander Cholla had sent to take care of the forest-sized weenie roast that was threatening to melt the glacier out from under them held their collective breaths as the bombs detonated… and, for a second, it seemed to work… the fire buckled as the liquid contents of the devices sprayed over a huge area, with an even larger zone flickering like a candle that has almost, but not completely, been blown out. Unfortunately, that analogy proved all too exact, as the undrenched flames immediately roared back up with a vengeance as the displaced oxygen feeding the blaze was sucked back in.

"Again!" Dallas commanded as it became obvious that the first round of Bazaalt extinguisher bombs had only made the slightest dent in the roaring blaze.

Four more bombs disappeared into the firestorm with as little effect and Dallas cursed. These AsP-500ms were supposed to be able to put out anything, but he felt like he was a three-year old pissing on a campfire… there was no way his limited supply was going to be able to handle this, and Cholla was NOT going to be happy if Dallas couldn't handle a simple assignment like putting out a fire, _especially_ after that brownie incident…

"You've got to start at the sides!" Shouted one of the Henchmen they'd picked up at the armory, interrupting Dallas' train of thought.

"What?" Dallas yelled back over the conflagration.

"Make firebreaks so the fire can't spread, then work inwards!" The Henchman hollered through the facemask of one of the protective helmets that all of the men were wearing. "We can't put it all out, but we can keep it from getting any bigger, and there can't be that much more left to burn in the center!"

_Damn, the Hench was right,_ Dallas realized… and given that the trees were bordered by open snow on this side and the frozen lake on the other, they wouldn't have THAT much they had to knock out.

"Right!" He agreed before snapping out new orders to the squad. "Two teams, one on each end. Set up a round of conventional explosives and clear a section. Then set up a barrage of aerial bursts and move inward… I'll take group one," he made a swath with his arm to indicate half of the men, "And the Scorpion down to the far end and find a place to make a break there and…"

Dallas stopped, realizing that all of his regulars were going to be too busy shooting mortars to focus on the big picture.

"You, Mister Fire Expert…" he told the Hench who'd spoken up. "Go with the second team and the Leviathan. You've got the bright ideas, you help them figure out where to make the cut. Think you can handle that?"

"Yes sir!" The Hench practically snapped to attention, and Dallas suppressed a laugh as he saw the way the man was sweating profusely… well, even more profusely than they all were already. If he was a typical hench, the prospect of being suddenly made responsible for the success of the assignment was bound to be unsettling.

'_Well, that's what you get for stepping up to the plate,'_ Dallas thought wickedly, _'And now you've learned rule number one in any army: "Never Voluntee….'_

And then it became impossible to hear even his own thoughts.

"Holy Shi…" He managed to utter as the roar of four giant air transports bearing down on his team drowned out all else.

##############################

Shego moved through the camp as quickly as she could while maintaining her now mostly affected limp… her leg still hurt, of course, but given a chance to simply sit and start healing, her regenerative powers had had time to focus on working their magic, and even with the painkillers that she'd taken starting to fade, she could might have even been able to get away with actually running for a short distance. Camille Leon, however, had no such abilities, so as long as Shego was wearing the holographic disguise of Camille over herself, she didn't dare act any differently than she had when she'd first been 'taken' by Cholla's men. She'd been reluctant about this part of the plan at first, but Kim had been right in assuming that since the Black Widows were expecting to meet up with Camille, any checking as to the legitimacy of her identity would be cursory at best… and what better way to double check Wade's overhead analysis than to walk into the middle of the enemy camp as a trusted ally?

Which is how, instead of heading to the latrines as she'd told her guards, she'd instead come to be 'casually' walking towards the tacking beacon identifying the impromptu 'armory' and single largest ammo dump in the Black Widow encampment just as she'd heard someone screaming "They're coming in!"

An evil smirk that her lover would have found all too familiar creased Shego's lips, transferring itself to the false lips of her disguise. Things were about to get exciting again for Go City's former favorite heroine… and as far as she was concerned, it was about damned time. She loved Kim and had to admit that the redhead's latest convoluted improvisation was nothing short of inspired, but using an invisible plasma field to slowly fry out the weapons controls in the Leviathan she'd been sitting in wasn't the kind of work Shego lived for. .. and there was no way she was letting her Kitten have all the fun when it came to the physical side of the action.

##############################

"Shoot them down, Godamnit!" Cholla barked as his command staff ran around in disarray. "Why aren't we SHOOTING at them?"

"We are, but something's wrong with the stingers on the Leviathan's missile racks!" Came near-panicked response from his ops officer. "Dallas took the other Leviathan and one of the Scorpions when he took the mortarmen to fight the fire!"

"He did WHAT?" Cholla exploded, blood vessels in his forehead threatening to rupturing like sausages bursting in the microwave as he realized his entire air defense had been reduced to the cannons on a single Scorpion and the handheld FIM-92s that were still in the armory dump! "Why the hell would he… no, never mind, just get the rest from the…"

And then he was thrown to the floor as the Widow's entire armory went up in a single gigantic explosion.

#################################

"Grenade!" Shego/Camille had yelled at the top of her lungs as she hurled a ball of concentrated plasma into the center of the hastily fortified enclosure.

The guards at the perimeter stared for just a second in confusion as they tried to place the fact that Shego/Camille's voice had come from one direction, while her visible holographic projection was clearly twenty feet on the other side of them… then what she'd actually said registered and they did the only wise thing to do when sitting on top of enough explosives to start a small war… hit the dirt face first and pray for it not to hurt too much.

Shego had already gone to ground, watching 'her' image do the same even as she focused on the latest wrinkle Kim had thought of for her plasma, forming a cone of kinetic force AROUND the armory in an attempt to funnel the brunt of the explosion upwards instead of outwards. As with jumping in molten lava, she'd never tried this before, but she was hoping that her physics-whiz of a girlfriend had figured things out correctly. Otherwise, this blast was likely to kill everyone in a several hundred foot radius of the detonation, including herself.

In the end, the trick was about eighty percent successful…

#################################

"…it!" Dallas finished screaming as the first of the four transports came barreling in over his men's head and a huge explosion erupted over the ridge, in the direction of the Widow's base camp. "I didn't think those things could drop bombs!"

'_Time to get the hell out of Dodge,'_ Ralph decided, _'Before someone notices the BCUs I buried under the fire-fighting bombs in the truck.' _

Because someone WAS going to be noticing that the ones for the other Stinger systems were missing now… The only question was whether that discovery would come before or after Dallas finally realized that the sweating henchman who'd offered advice on how to stop the fire was someone he'd never seen with his unit before. Someone who'd merged himself into the firefighting team when they came to get the Baazalts from the ammo supply area. Ralph hadn't had enough time to get a complete inventory of its contents, but he had managed to confirm that there were no toxic agents that could be set off by a plasma fueled explosion… as tough as Shego was, nerve gas would almost certainly kill her… and to his own surprise, he'd even managed to swipe the BCUs for the most immediately threatening weapons, the Stingers. Knowing that the hand-held missile launchers were useless without the argon battery coolant units, he'd snagged every one he'd been able to find, then snuck them into the bottom of Leviathan's rear storage when no one was looking. Equally unnoticed was his placement of the tracking marker and sending a brief 'bomb here' signal to Shego using Camille's smart phone, which Wade had hacked into to create a secure communications channel. It wasn't as good as a Kimmunicator, obviously, but it had been sufficient to confirm his own suspicion that, for all their 'professional mercenary' veneer, the Black Widows still did most things by the standard Henchco manual… which had taken him less than a minute to find, despite it being 'perfectly' hidden.

"Come on, let's get this fire out so we can get the hell back to base!" Ralph ordered the half of the men Dallas hadn't singled out as 'his,' running for the truck where the stingers were hidden. Whether they followed or not, he was taking off for the far end of the forest where he could hopefully dispose of the weapons, but in the meantime he'd try to accomplish at least half of what Kim had hoped for and try to get a firebreak started.

Dumbfounded, Dallas watched as half of his team took off after the heavyset henchman without even waiting for his authorization.

_Then again, maybe it's because he was making sense,_ Dallas realized. _The Commander was going to be MORE than pissed when he found out that Dallas hadn't even thought to order his Scorpion and Leviathan gun crews to shoot at the transports when they'd passed right over him. Never mind that they'd had their attention on the job they were supposed to be doing and literally no warning from base._

_Not to mention, _his subconscious whispered,_ that the ends of this forest are going to be a lot better position to be running from away from once the shit really starts coming down… this probably isn't going to be a safe place to be at all once whoever's in those planes starts unloading._

"Right!" Dallas snapped to the remaining team, "Let's get those firebreaks started!"

#################################

"_God, I hope Ralph is having a better time than I am,"_ Sam swore to himself as the frame of the massive transport he and a fourth of Gemini's hired henches was riding bucked like a crazed bronco. _"Lucky bastard is probably sitting on a tropical island somewhere serving cocktails to the Seniors."_

Things had been going so smoothly until just a few minutes ago, when one of Gemini's Greek Letters… Kappa… had suddenly ordered everyone to strap in. Now the entire aircraft was shaking like a an out of balance vibrator as it fell out of the sky at an angle that experience told Sam was way too steep for a normal landing.

And the worst part was that the view through the side window told him exactly why Kappa had asked for a show of hands as to which henches knew how to swim.

"BRACE FOR WATER LANDING!" Someone yelled over the P.A. and then the ride got REALLY rough as something much bigger than the usual landing gear deployed from the bottom of the craft.

################################

"Pontoons down!" Shouted the pilot as Nane's knobby fingers shredded the padding off her shock-seat's armrests and the annoying little dog in her carrysack let out a mournful howl of doom.

"Here we go!"

#################################

With a splash of water the size of a large suburban block, the first of the WEE hypersonic transports belly-flopped into the freezing waters of the glacial lake above the dam. If there had been any huge chucks of ice floating in the targeted landing zone, things could have gone VERY badly for the Gemini/Nane contingent, but the dam's regular maintenance crew did an excellent job of keeping the water clear of anything that could potentially be a threat to the walls of the dam itself… which turned the lake into an acceptable landing zone for any plane that was equipped to do so. Which, theoretically, the KVG-Hyper Transport WAS.

Until that very second, however, it was mostly theory… an extra feature grafted onto the plane at the last minute as a way of potentially selling the insanely expensive craft to small nations with minimal free land but excess open bodies of water and as a last ditch alternative for emergency landings. The pontoons and floatation systems had been tested had been tested under ideal circumstances exactly four times prior to this exact moment, and whether the transports would yet prove to be able to take off from the lake was still a matter to be determined. However, the simple fact that the system HAD worked this time was irrefutable, and a cause of great joy not only to those who had been ON the plane, but also to the pilots of the planes following as they saw clear proof that it could be done… evidence that was doubled and tripled as two more of the monstrous metal birds duplicate their leader's example to land in similar giant mass of foaming white spray.

The fourth transport wasn't quite as lucky. With a shout of jubilation, the gunner in the Widow base Scorpion FINALLY managed to hit a target and the tail stabilized on the HyperTrans simply ceased to be. Under normal circumstances that might have been a savable situation, but with all the odds stacked against him, the pilot of transport four did a miraculous job of simply keeping the plane from plunging nose-first to the bottom of the lake. Instead, the transport hit the water sideways and skipped like a stone across a pond, losing the entire tail end in the process. Within seconds, the vehicle was sinking rapidly… though not as quickly as it would have had the pontoons not remained deployed… and the crew and henches inside were engaged in a desperate struggle to fight their way out of the soon to be coffin and arctic waters.

None of which phased their real commander in the slightest.

"Three out of four. Not bad at all," Nanny Nane spoke calmly as the rest of the cockpit crew of the lead ship was still in the process of assessing the fact that they were still amazingly alive. Secretly, though, she was doing cartwheels… not only had she cheated the Reaper one more time, but since the fourth plane's crash had clearly been the result of an 'unprovoked attack' by HenchCo's Black Widows, the legal battle over who was responsible for the carnage could be played out in the courts for years.

"And now Gentlemen," she commanded the white faced pilots, "taxi us to the nearest shore and let us get our men disembarked. We've got a teen hero to kill."

#################################

"Stop!" Crash's voice screamed. "For God's sake, stop!"

"_What the fuck now?"_ Dash swore to himself, but despite the urgent need to escape and the fact that they had quickly abandoned Burn only a few minutes earlier, something about the timber of the pilot's voice forced the leader of Team Impossible to draw up short and turn... just in time to realize that Crash WAN'T speaking to him. Clutching his head in pain, Team Impossible's pilot collapsed first to his knees, then fell face first into the snow where he began rolling and thrashing in what was obviously horrific agony.

Gasping and sweating, Adrena, who'd been bringing up the tail end of their group, ran up as Crash unleashed a bloodcurdling shriek and began clawing at his own face.

"Burns!" Crash babbled mindlessly, attempting to bury his head in the snow of snow and convulsing as if having a seizure.

"What's wrong with him?" The now drawn and ragged looking blond demanded, perspiration streaming down her face as she gave voice to the same question that was in Dash's mind. "Some kind of ninja weapon? A poison?"

"I don't know," Dash growled, trying to calm his freaked out employer even as Crash went into a new series of spasms.

"Then what…?"

"I said I DON'T KNOW!" Dash screamed.

"Burns…." Crash whimpered, and to the others' disgust, his clawed fingers grabbing handfuls of the now muddy snow he'd been wallowing in and them into his mouth. "Inside!"

Adrena and Dash exchanged furtive glances.

"If you don't know what's wrong, we've got to leave him." Adrena's tone was insistent and demanding. Dash started to snarl back a retort about who was in charge, but one look at the blonde's matted and dripping hair told him that she wasn't in any mood for arguing… and as the only one who knew how to contact the son of a bitch who'd sent them on this fool's errand, she DID have the last word.

Besides… she was right. Whatever the hell was wrong with Crash, there was no way Dash and Adrena could carry him, even if the former TV star was willing to try. And assuming that whatever was wrong with Crash wasn't going to hit them too. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't feeling so good himself, and as he watched Adrena start to undo the front of her winter survival suit, revealing a completely sweat soaked undershirt, he realized that they might not have much time left in which to make their getaway.

"aw… fuck it," Dash bit the words out angrily. This mission had already cost him the Skyvixen and the other third of Team Impossible, but if he could get back to civilization, they still had assets he could draw on to start rebuilding. No, HE still had assets. From this point, Crash was on his own and shit out of luck.

"Sorry man," he whispered under his breath as he broke back into a stride to catch up with Adrena, leaving his last partner twitching uncontrollably in the snow.

########################

"Hold back just a little longer Kim," Wade's voice insisted via the speaker inside Kim's head, his image appearing over satellite and surveillance camera views of, among other things, the sinking hypertrans, the fire in the middle of the Black Widow encampment and Crash's body lying in the snow. "Tim just pulled up Crash's records and it looks like he has lot of old school dental reconstruction. It's a good thing you made us start as low as possible and build."

"Except he's not the one I was concerned about," Kim reminded him with a guilty frown, never breaking stride as she made a beeline toward the fallen Team Impossible member's location. "Even though I should have been."

Wade fumbled for something to say. "You can't think of everything Kim."

Kim didn't want to hear it. Sure, it was easy enough to argue that, logically, the wreck of the hyper transport wasn't really her fault, and even if conscience did keep insisting that the fact that it was attempting to land on the lake in the first place made it, however tenuously, a direct result of her decision to come here in the first place, she'd been a hero long enough to have the fact that you can't take the blame for what the bad guys do drilled into her head.

But what was happening with Crash, on the other hand, WAS her fault, 100%, and while she hadn't expected one of her quarry to have this extreme a reaction, she'd known it was possible and she knew she was going to have more than a few bad nights of sleep as a result. Maybe that was part of the price she paid for going against her natural inclinations and tracking TI electronically with a video feed from the safety of the extreme edge of the microwaves saturating the HERFsat's focus area rather than maintaining direct visual contact… the video images being ironically far more graphic and visceral than a binocular view from 500 feet…. yet it was more than that. Kim wasn't adverse to hurting someone if it needed to be done… there was a long list of villains and henchmen who could readily attest to that fact, but she was used to doing it herself, with her own feet and fists, where she often got as good as she gave and could pull her punches as needed. This… inflicting pain that someone couldn't even understand, let alone fight against, from a distance sickened her… and only gave her renewed respect for the restraint Shego had always shown in the years when they were adversaries. There were so many ways her now-lover COULD have hurt her, yet never attempted.

That said, once she chosen this course of action, she'd been stuck hanging on the edge of the hot zone, because what had happened to Crash would have been far, far worse for Kim herself. Her short career had already left her with more pins and metal plates inside her than any five normal people… and that wasn't even counting the wires inside her skull that made communicating with Wade possible. And because of that, it wasn't an anticipation of Crash's pain that had kept her from letting Wade really turn on the juice; it the fact that she'd have to retreat even further away herself if she didn't want to get the world's worst case of inside-out sunburn. Due to the complexity of using a High-Energy Radio-Frequency satellite that had never been expressly designed for use as an anti-personnel weapon like the U.S. Military's Active Denial System (ADS), the best that Wade and the Tweebs had been able to safely manage was to create a microwave cannon that was now raise the temperature in the area surrounding Team Impossible's remaining members to a sweltering 120 degrees Fahrenheit… which that meant that, inevitably, TI was going to have to make a choice of continuing to wear all that stifling body armor or passing out from heat strokes. And, in the meantime, as anyone whose ever left a bit of foil in the microwave by accident has discovered to their dismay, what that would do to any metal objects Dash, Adrena and Crash were carrying was going to be even MORE painful.

"If he wasn't trying to kill you, I might more feel sorry for him," Wade was saying. "But he was Kim, and no doubt he'll keep trying if we let up on him."

"It's enough," Kim countered, shaking her head as she continued making her way towards the place where Crash was still lying. "Just keep following Dash and Adrena, and I'll get Crash zipped up as a matching package for Burn."

"You got it boss lady," Wade nodded and his image went blank. He was still there, of course, waiting for her to initiate a resumption of visual communication, but it was the best he could do to give her the illusion of privacy.

Kim stopped for a second and pulled up her visor to wipe the sweat off her face and daub up the blood at the corner of her mouth. It was getting really warm now and she needed to slow down if she didn't want to start having the same reactions that Crash had had… but there was so little time in which everything had to be done. If only she'd had a chance to rest and didn't hurt so damn much… but she had to keep pushing the envelope. Just a little longer.

"You're a Possible, yada yada yada," She reminded herself wearily… and then she started running again.


	55. Chapter 55

_**Author's Note:**__ First up, AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM just won TWO Fannie Awards: Best Mature Story AND Best Kigo! BooYahaha! __Thanks to all of you who voted, and to everyone who's been reading this epic little fan obsession of mine... And before anyone even asks... yes, the next chapter, 56, is already in the works... __**Ye Old Legal stuff at de bottom!**_

**##########################**

**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM**

Chapter 55

**###########################**

Sam's teeth were chattering so hard that he barely noticed the last vestiges of light disappearing behind the jagged mountains his transport had just missed coming in. As he splashed the final dozen feet to the snow-covered shore, the only thing he was aware of, and that dismally, was the fact that his waterproof blue thermal Hencho Cold Weather jumpsuit had proved to be nothing of the sort and he was completely soaked below the waist. The white all weather jacket he was wearing over that hadn't fared much better, but at least the woolen lining was still keeping his upper torso above freezing… and he'd only been one of the men pulling in the poor bastards who'd actually taken a swim. He'd never been colder or more miserable in his life, so he could only imagine what the henches they'd fished out were feeling… if they could feel anything at all through the early stages of hypothermia. But at least they hadn't lost anyone, as least as far as he could tell.

Yet.

So much for the notion that things were going to be better under Nane than Gemini. The hench mutter-net worked just fine and everyone knew that the entire landing could have gone even worse… and only the fact that Nane was willing to risk getting herself killed as well kept the anger from boiling into outright mutiny. That and the monstrous and ancient side-arm the woman had taken up as an adjunct to her umbrella, identified by those in the know as an artillery Luger or Lange Pistol 08, equipped with a 32 round Trommelmagazin. Gemini had almost wet himself when the woman had produced it out of her monstrous combat handbag, which seemed to be full of quite a number of reloads, as well as her umbrella, a generous helping of hand grenades and that nasty little mutt of their nominal employers, and there was no doubt on anyone's part that she knew all too well how to use with the same deadly efficiency with which she did everything else.

The whole gun thing was unnerving the henches as well. Sure, they'd all trained with them, but no one really expected to have to use them except for the occasional random shot at a fleeing hero or to supplement the monotonous diets that were so common at the more desolate and isolated henching posts. Truthfully, it was rare for more than a handful of henches to have anything more powerful than a taser rifle at once, yet right now Nane's entire force was armed with HA-47s, Henchco's slightly modified sub variant of the classic AK-47 assault rifle. No one knew what those modifications were, of course, but it probably had something to do with driving the price down rather than increasing reliability. And she was expecting them to be ready to use them. Potentially on other Henches.

That had come as the ugliest surprise of all. Sure, there was an unspoken tradition among henches that, should it ever come down to that, the intent would be to wound at worst, or simply shout 'Bang! You're dead!' if you caught the other party to rights, but an actual full scale conflict like this had never happened before, and between the fading light and the… zeal with which Nane was goading them on… one could only wonder if no mistakes would be accidentally made in the dark. And that was just with the henches on the Senior's side. The other major parties on the ground… no one had bothered to tell the henches on his level who the were if it was even known, wouldn't be party to any such agreements. And yet… Sam knew that if the choice were given to him, he knew who he'd rather go up against. Hench against Hench was just wrong, and he could only wonder what the end results of this amazing colossal nightmare were going to be.

It was a question he saw mirrored on almost every other face around him, the exceptions being those who seemed to be making some kind of prayers and the poor unlucky bastards who were already out of action.

"All right you maggots," Nane's voice called out of the night. "Form up in ranks. Three columns! We move in five!"

As Sam found himself shepherded into the strike team given the code name "Morituri," the others being "Kamikaze" and "Omega," he found himself staring at the incredible fires burning on the other side of the lake that had already tried to swallow him. The lake that he would soon have to cross again in the small inflatable zodiacs that were all a part of Nane's master plan.

A latin name. A ring of ice. A ring of fire.

Why did he have a feeling he already knew what he would find beyond those flames?

##########################

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Dash demanded, the veins popping from his forehead as Adrena finally pulled her shirt off completely and dropped to her knees. The infurriating woman had been walking in an erratic pattern ever since she'd discarded the parka and bulletproof vest he was now carrying over his shoulder along with his own, and under any other circumstances he'd have just said screw the bitch and left her. Unfortunately, only she knew exactly how to contact the people running this nightmare, and if Dash couldn't contact them, he'd just effectively trashed everything Team Impossible had been able to build for nothing. And he couldn't carry Adrena too, not on top of all his other gear AND still be ready for whatever else Possible's allies might pull out of their technological asses.

"Get up and keep walking!" He shouted again, kicking snow at her in frustration.

"Why?" Adrena gasped, showing she didn't give a damn about what he was doing as she grabbed handfuls of the melting snow and began rubbing it over her body, now covered from the waist up in only a thin and completely soaked sports bra. "Haven't you figured out that they're going to cook us alive? Touch your damn zipper!"

Dash blinked and…

"Son of a bitch!" He exclaimed, letting go of the jacket closure he'd touched like it was on fire. Because it WAS. Well… more like superheated as if left out in the desert sun for hours, but still enough to leave the imprint of the teeth tingling across the inside of his fingers where they had started to scald…

Sweet Jesus, Adrena was right! Microwaves! The reason they hadn't seen any of the ninjas is because they were going to be cooked from the inside out instead…

No… no… even as pissed off as Possible's people were, they probably weren't going to kill them outright… probably… Not if Possible was still alive, anyway. But then why…?

"SHIT!" In seconds he was stripping himself… not of clothing, but of gear, because if it was metal heating up… He'd seen ammo go off in fires but, how hot did it have to actually be? 500 degrees or so normally… his guns couldn't get THAT hot, could they? Frustratingly, he couldn't remember… but he'd seen a guy set off a bullet just by hitting it the right way on the sidewalk.

And if the primers were being heated from the INSIDE…

The grenades were the first to go, chucked, pin-in, as far as he could beyond the biggest piles of rock he could see. With those gone, Dash hastily began ejecting every bullet and clip from every weapon in his entire collection, holding them out at arms' length just in case. He wasn't going forward without a gun… not with those ninjas out there… but he could at least play it safe by keeping the clips separated so if a bullet did blow, it wouldn't foul the weapon as well. And if he wrapped them in Adrena's discarded Kevlar vest, then shoved the whole kit into his backpack along with the blonde's now empty handgun, that ought to contain any rounds going off, right? The one thing he was pretty sure of was that if they went off while not in the chamber, the force would mostly blow out the sides… it would be really nasty if it went off in your hand, but not lethal… but the flak jacket they were wrapped in coupled with his own body armor should make it safe enough to carry. He thought.

His ears barely caught the multiple 'zzaaattt!s" from inside the machine gun's clip in time. Maybe it was the actual act of tossing the item over the next outcrop of rocks, coupled with the heating brass of the cartridges inside, but SOMETHING finally hit the bursting point and suddenly the self igniting primers were doing their best to turn the sparking clip into a Jiffy-Popgun! Holy fuck!

Suddenly Dash was feeling a lot less confident about carrying the backpack.

##################################

"They've landed on the lake." Wade informed Kim quickly as she kept up her surveillance on the distant pair. "Three made it safe, one's going down…"

"Survivors?" Kim asked quickly, wondering if they were going to have to stage a rescue on their own attackers. It could be done but…

"Looks like no losses," Wade fortunately replied. "They may have lost some heavy gear, but they're forming up for something… and despite the accident, they look just as organized as the Widows. Maybe better."

"_Damn,"_ the Redhead swore to herself. Some days a girl just couldn't catch a break. And that meant that while the control freak in her hated it, the shortening timeline was going to force her to let something go. "Okay, Ron, I'm sorry, but you need to roll your part of the plan now with the back up and I'll try to catch up with you if I can."

"Right KP," the blonde ninja confirmed, "Wade, I need to run some things by you and Will, but we don't need to distract Kim with it."

"Opening a second channel for that conversation," Wade confirmed. "As for the rest of the sitch, it looks like Ralph's actually still got a group of the Widows still trying to put out the fire. Who does that guy think he is, you?"

"I'm sure as hell not going to complain unless he tries to wear my clothes," Kim returned, "Good help is hard to come by, however you get it. But what's Shego's stat…"

"I'm fine Princess," Shego jumped into the conversation, her image in Kim's visor looking a little smoked but grinning broadly. "But I'm afraid poor Camille was in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least a dozen men must have seen her engulfed by that fireball. With any luck, no one will be inclined to dig under the wreckage to see if there's anything left."

"And thus endeth the Trojan Horse game, Act 1," Kim nodded with a matching smile, "At least, until we need 'her' again. I assume you've gone to Trojan Two and have a way to cut out of there when the heat gets too hot?"

"As if it could ever get too hot for me," the green girlfriend snorted. "You're the one who cooks, cupcake."

"I know, I know. Just be careful, Hot Pants," Kim soothed, taking great pleasure at the stunned bulging of Shego's eyes.

"D…did you just call me _Hot Pants_?"

"Says the woman who just called me a pastry product," Kim managed a good approximation of a smirk. "And besides, you have to admit that that one rolls off the tongue pretty naturally."

"I'd comment on that if this wasn't an open channel."

"Well, if you don't like my tongue rolling…"

"Fine! Okay! I'll be carefull and you can call me hot pants!"

"Speaking of which," Wade inserted smoothly. "Do you think Team Impossible has cooked enough yet?"

"Funny you should mention that," Kim grinned toothily as she eyed the magnified image in her visor.

##################################

"Get up damnit!" Dash screamed at Adrena as his last 'partner' continued to lie face down in the snow. "Get up and walk you goddamn bitch!"

Adrena didn't move. She barely even moaned, only the movement of her sides as she drew long, heavy breaths making her look alive.

Dash barely held back urge to kick the woman. The way his luck was running, he'd probably cave in her damned ribcage and then where would he be? Not that he had any reservations about hurting the blonde at this point… he fully intended to give her an intensive work over with some little tools he'd picked up from an ex-KGB interrogator if she didn't volunteer the information he needed voluntarily. But for now, he needed her able to walk, because he damned sure wasn't up to carrying her lazy carcass AND guarding against attack.

Now that he'd had time to think it through, he felt confident pretty confident with his second plan. Dumping out his walkie-talkie… it wasn't like he had anyone to talk to now anyway… he'd quickly re-purposed its hard leather, steel and plastic case into an improvised ammo box. Wrapping enough of the clips and magazines for a quick response into his ski mask, tossing in a handful of snow… a safe bet given that it would take weeks of soaking to affect them under normal conditions… he'd then stuffed the whole wad into the case. As long as he kept his heavy snow gloves on while handling them, they OUGHT to be safe enough for a quick reload.

At least until whatever new crap his opponents threw against him. No, THEM. At least until he could get the information out of Adrena, he had to keep thinking of them as a team. He had to.

Oh, FUCK it!

With a savage growl, he slung the one gun he'd kept at the ready, then reached down and grabbed the former TV star, tossing her over his shoulder like a sack of rice.

And several thousand yards away, a feral looking creature whose name had been Kim Possible smiled. "Wade…?"

"Uh, this is Tim, sis. Wade's on the other channel."

"Doesn't matter," Kim continued easily, slipping off all her superfluous gear with only a minor wince as her ribs seemed to flex inside her. "The thermometer's about to pop on the turkeys. Get ready to pull the plug."

##################################

"Um, Dr. Director, ma'am, sir?"

Betty Director looked up at the face of Ron Stoppable, flanked by those of Wade Load and Will Du as they peered back from the bank of monitors in her mobile HQ from which she'd been monitoring the multiple unfolding situations surrounding Castle Senior and the cities beneath the dams. Needless to say, accessing this particular address from outside was supposed to be impossible, but where Wade Load was involved, that was a word that truly ceased to have meaning.

Not that she was complaining. So far, her Global Rescue counterparts' excellent intelligence team of Load and the two younger Possibles had done a spectacular job of helping her extremely limited local ground forces cope with the nightmarish task of staging a major evacuation while keeping the enemy forces less than a mile away unaware of the fact. Of course, since the eruption of the forest fire they'd had very little trouble getting the citizens in the nearest communities to start moving VERY quickly, and it appeared that the radio blackout that was being spread by the complex net of satellites and remote transponders on Global Rescue's two aerial assets was holding tight… aided no doubt by the fact that Senor Senior Junior, while definitely psychopathic, left quite a vacuum in the genius part of Evil Genius. Now that Sheldon and, according to her reports, his partner Nanny Nane had arrived, however, that situation was about to change radically.

If it hadn't already, she added mentally, noting the three worried looking faces on the monitor central monitor. Damn, all she really wanted was to get her own boots on the ground and DO something, but in the meantime it seemed the only thing constructive she could do was exude that aura of calm self assuredness that leaders are invariably supposed to project.

"Yes, gentlemen?" She smiled politely, exuding at full confidence level as she addressed Global Rescue's brain trust… minus 2.

"We have a question, ma'am," Will Du finally took center mic at Misters Stoppable and Load's apparent insistence. "About a certain issue that's come up… and under the circumstances we'd really rather not distract Kim or Shego over it until we've heard your opinion first."

Betty felt the brow over her good eye arch up of its own accord. Will Du NOT bucking to take charge and actually working as a coordinated unit with a pre-teen genius and… whatever it was that Stoppable was? Unbelievable. What WAS Possible putting in the Kool-Aid over there?

Oh yes, possibly a strong dose of reality. The head of Global Justice had known of the growing resentment by certain factions within GJ against what was seen as unwarranted favoritism towards Kim when it came to doling out prime missions, especially since the girl wasn't even an actual agent. Her subsequent 'gift' of the safehouse for Kim to stay in had raised even more hackles, but in the long run it had proved to serve perfectly for both of the purposes that she had intended. First, and most obviously, it had helped her mitigate some of the danger of the hero being taken out by assassins lying in ambush, but even more importantly, though far more subtly, it had also allowed a large number of GJ agents to actually witness both the sheer volume of missions that Kim went through and the incredible speed with which she executed them. As young as Possible was, she already had more field experience than most agents would have in their entire careers, and that was before adding in all her other rescues and anti-super villain activities. By cycling all her field operatives through a week or two of Possible-Watch, Betty had rather effectively cut all griping about Kim down to almost zero. Not only had her agents all been stunned by what they were seeing, leaving no one doubting the reasons as to why Kim was so often hand-picked for the most critical assignments, the level of respect for the girl within GJ had skyrocketed… which would have suited Betty's plans perfectly had she ever managed to snare Possible as an actual agent, and had certainly caused almost all thoughts of favoritism to go out the window. After all, only a crazy person with an... ahem... possible death wish could possibly want to live the life Kim Possible did.

Still… that DID describe Will fairly accurately as well, and given that she'd almost given up on salvaging the otherwise quite capable agent for higher responsibilities due to his arbitrary fits of pique and jealousy, the change was as impressive as it was welcome.

But she'd dawdled in her thoughts long enough. Time to see what the Y-chromosomed half of Global Rescue wanted.

"Just as long as you realize that I'm only offering an OPINION," Dr. Director smiled dryly. "I'll be glad to offer that…"

#################################

One foot after the other, Dash kept moving forward, his mind focused on the mantra his old survival training instructors had impressed on him on the subject of surviving a death march. Besides the obvious _'Don't get stuck in one.'_

'_Ignore the weight'_ he commanded himself, step after step, _'Ignore the heat."_

Hell, sometimes it even worked. The dead weight of Adrena on his shoulder still ground into his bones, but she was balanced by the guns on the other, and he could almost imagine that the sweltering heat that threatened to suck the air our of his lungs had cooled slightly…

No… wait… DID it actually feel a little cooler?

He heard the sound and threw Adrena one way and himself the other just in time… except it was a fraction of a second too late, because what he'd thought had been some kind of weapon was actually an anti-weapon… Possible's damn grappler! Whipping in like cobra, it unerringly struck the one gun he'd kept at the ready, the machine pistol, and jerked it from its holster before snaking back into the darkness. Dash's eyes could barely followed the blurring shape against the mottled fields of ice encrusted trees and snow covered rock, but it was easy enough to find the target at the end of its trajectory.

"Hey Dash," Kim Possible smiled from her position atop a nearby pillar of rocks… his gun now in her hand. "Been a while."

#########################

Kim watched as Dash took in her position and the fact that she definitely had him covered… but she also knew that he knew that, if push came to shove, she'd shoot to wound. Would he risk that? It seemed like a bad idea but…

The irritating thing, unfortunately, was that if she was in his shoes, she'd definitely try something. And unlike her, she doubted he'd have much compunction about using Adrena's unconscious form as a human bullet stop. But she'd had time to anticipate the various ways how this would play out.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. First, I want you to move away from Adrena… very slowly…"

#########################

"And then, I want you to start tossing all of your weapons," the redhead in the painted on black and purple bodysuit ordered, "Plus that cute little ammo holder you made, as far as you can in my direction."

Dash gnashed his teeth. How long had the bitch been watching them? How many of the tricks he'd set up did she know?

Well, the one thing he DID know was that he wasn't letting the cheerleader take him. Not with all the evidence they would already have found… the theft of the SkyVixen alone would send him to rot in some federal camp for a couple of lifetimes. And while she was hiding it well, his experienced eye could see that she was moving just a little slowly and trying not to favor one side.

He could take her. He knew he could. And then the whole stupid fiasco would pay off.

"Fine," he lied out loud, carefully rising with his hands held in plain sight and slowly moving a dozen yards to his left… Possible's right… and cautiously reaching for the straps holding the machine gun on his back, his currently worthless M60E4. Although the weapon was his personal favorite, and while the magazines were among the few he'd decided to keep, they were also unfortunately buried in the bottom of his backpack surrounded by the Kevlar vests. On the other hand, the clip for the NEXT weapon he was going to go for, the R5 assault rifle originally chosen for Adrena, was right to hand in his little belt-box.

"Okay, I'm tossing the machine gun," he announced out loud, making a show of holding the weapon in way that would make it impossible to use quickly, then tensing and trying not to cringe as the trusty weapon flew a dozen feet and hit a rock under the snow with a nasty clank. He looked up at Possible, but she didn't seem to have moved, her eyes still watching him impassively.

"Keep going."

"Right," Dash nodded, preparing to unsling the R4. He'd have only seconds here, but…

"Wait!" Possible commanded. "The ammo box next."

Shit! She must have read something in his body language. He'd attached the box to Adrena's utility belt and then looped it loosely around his waist, so he'd be able to pull the whole thing off in a hurry if the ammo did go… but that meant the simple act of unfastening his belt would leave him stripped of ready ammunition. With gnarling fingers, Dash reached for the buckle… and then realized what a chance this had just given him.

"Hold on, it's stuck…" He began, then before she could react. "No, it's…"

And on what WOULD have been 'fine,' he bolted, leaping to one side, sliding the R4 around and off his shoulder with one hand while flipping open the box and grabbing the 35 round magazine, rolling as he clipped it in and came up firing.

At someone who wasn't there.

"What the…?" He gasped.

And then Kim's boot kicked him in the chin as she suddenly appeared next to him like a ghost, and the R4 was flying out of his hands. Holy crap! She'd kicked him, whirled and kicked him again, so fast that he'd barely been able to see it!

###########################

Dash was tough and fast, Kim had to give him that. That first kick would have laid most men out cold, and he might have even got the drop on her, if she'd actually stayed where she was instead of rolling a fixed loop of herself in that position while slowly backing away behind the rocks and then circling around to the side under camo-mode. But, of course, she had and he hadn't. That left her with the gun and him with none.

Hardly fair.

Then again, she'd had a beef with this guy since he'd first shown up trying to intimidate a tiny little cheerleader who was just trying to save the world.

"Get up." She ordered and watched as he rocked back up to his feet, seemingly barely worse for wear besides the split lip and the rising welt in the shape of her size 7 foot slowly rising across the lower part of his face. "Pack. Off. NOW."

With a look of pure hatred, Dash complied, tossing the backpack away.

And then his jaw dropped as she took his gun and followed suit, throwing it as far as she could into the trees.

"A long time ago, you said that you could take me," She purred, taking off her helmet. "Let's see if that's true."

And then Kim Possible went to work.

_To be continued… AND HOW!_

##################################

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Jack Hench, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Nanny Nane,Gemini, Adrena Lynn, Dash, Crash and Burn aka Team Impossible, Will Du, Jim and Tim Possible AKA the Tweebs, the Yamanouchi Ninjas and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Sam Jackson (no relation), Ralph Emerson Shepherd, Jose Mendoza, Stevens and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _


	56. Chapter 56

_**Author's Note:**__ For those who complain about cliffies… I think you'll see one or two places below where I could have been a real bastard. As for the rest… keeps you reading, don't it? __**Ye Old Legal stuff at de bottom!**_

###############################

**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM**

Chapter 56

###############################

"_Why am I doing this?"_ Kim wondered as she pulled off her helmet. She could have stayed under the camouflage of the Kimmunicator's holo projections and taken Dash out in just a few seconds. And if her partners… especially Wade and Shego… suspected just how bad her own condition actually was, they'd be screaming at her not to take the big man on.

But she hadn't let any of them know. And the fact was, as much of a good girl as the world perceived her to be, there were times when Kim Possible got so angry she just had to hit something. The fact that Dash and his cohorts had intended to kill Kim was a fury she could deal with, but when she'd seen the relayed video of what they had done to Bonnie… what they had no doubt been prepared to do any of her friends and loved ones who got in their way… THAT had set her blood boiling.

Dash was the right size to hit. She wasn't the kind of person who would ever strike someone who couldn't defend themselves, but with multiple black belts, an Ultimate Street Fighter championship and a build that said he bench pressed Schwarzeneggers and ate Rambos for breakfast, Dash could definitely do that. He'd hit back and hit back hard.

"_For a while, anyway,"_ hissed the deadly animal buried deep inside Kim's outwardly civilized mind.

"A long time ago, you said that you could take me," She heard her own voice saying. "Let's see if that's true."

"_Now let's see this bastard TRY to touch me."_

###################################

Dash Dermont was many things… survival expert, linguist, martial artist… but the one thing he wasn't was a fool. Possible was giving him a golden opportunity to sever her pretty red head from that sleek little body.

He took it.

Exploding forward in a swirling avalanche of powerful kicks, hand and elbow blows and knee thrusts, he immediately launched into his strongest form, one that favored close physical combat, and took advantage of his superior size, body mass and reach. With its emphasis on blocking attacks, wearing down an opponent and savage kicks that could deliver over a thousand pounds of thrust, Muay Thai doubled the traditional four contact points of hand and foot used by most martial arts with the addition of a deadly array of elbow and knee strikes and blocks. And given the fact that Dash's ARMS were bigger than Possible's LEGS, the up close combat of the "Art of Eight Limbs" seemed the ideal technique for taking down the lightly built female.

Seemed, being the operative word.

An extremely gifted _nak muay,_ Dash had fought in everything from regulation Kickboxing to so called 'ultimate fighter' competitions and the true ultra-secret competitions where the fighters still wrapped their hands in wet rope and broken glass. The fact that he still had his good looks, not to mention working control of all of his limbs, was testament to his skill.

But… unbelievably… Dash found that Kim wasn't retreating in front of his onslaught! And she wasn't getting hit either. At least not where he wanted to hit the bitch. Every _Khao khong _curving knee strike, every_ Sok ti _elbow slash was somehow met… and with a shock, he realized that she was using Muay Thai as well, but only half of the standard defensive array, avoiding the blocks with a shin or arm where his superior size and strength would have snapped her bones like twig, but focusing almost entirely on redirection, the redhead's flashing arms and knees hitting Dash's limbs at precisely the right millisecond to send the blow past, her hands CATCHING his most powerful blows and absorbing the energy with no damage to herself. It shouldn't be possible… not unless she was a far more skilled nak muay than he was! But even though he'd spent hours studying reports and footage of the teen hero's various battles, even though he'd never once HEARD of Possible kickboxing before…

It was obvious that she could. And on a purely academic level she WAS better than him. By light years.

That realization came a microsecond too late, for even as he maneuvered to get Kim into a clinch, the _chap kho_ that would have allowed him to lock her down and pummel with elbow and knee thrust, she was instead impossibly batting his arms aside with a dazzling series of _Sok phung _and _Sok ngat _elbow attacks and she was INSIDE his own guard… and that was when Dash finally snapped to the fact that that Possible had never been using _just_ Muay Thai, and that she had now segued instead into the form it was developed from, a discipline that put an even greater emphasis on the agility, flexibility and speed that were HER strong suits! Worse, his last attempt to slam her back with his hard driven _Khao trong _straight knee strike was turned against him as Kim suddenly employed the other main difference between Muay Thay and her _Muay Boran_, using the ninth of the "Science of Nine weapons." Latching on to the momentum of his own kick, she RODE on his knee up towards his face and ruthlessly delivered a staggering head butt to his face that almost certainly shattered his nose!

Reeling backwards, Dash broke away with a blind _Kradot te _jump that failed to connect with anything but at least forced Possible to hop back outside of his defensive zone. Blinking in shock, the leader of Team Impossible found his ringing head clearing enough to realize that not only was his nose was now broken, but at least one of his three expensive caps was rattling around in his mouth along with the tooth… teeth they'd been attached to! And even as he was still trying to regain his bearings, the woman in black and purple back flipped away, then launched into a rapid series of cartwheels around him in a flanking move that would have looked perfectly at home in any high school football stadium in the U.S., a feat made all the more astounding in that she was doing it on a jagged, rock strewn field completely submerged beneath a cloak of ice and snow where any normal human ran the risk of breaking a leg simply by running too fast.

As so many fighters before Dash had discovered, Kim's greatest asset was her ability to combine elements of dozens of martial arts forms and gymnastics into a single uninterrupted stream of eloquent movement. In all her career, she'd only met one opponent capable of matching her hit for hit, strike to strike, move for move… and unfortunately for Dash Demont, HE wasn't Shego.

And then Possible was back on her feet, balance shifting fluidly from foot to foot as she segued into a move that almost anyone would recognize, even if they'd never heard of the hybrid martial arts system Jeet Kune Do… all they had to have seen was a single Bruce Lee film. The single hand, beckoning him… taunting him… to re-engage, was the only clue he would have needed.

"Now if you're done warming up," the flame haired demon hissed. "Let's bring it."

###################################

The combined team of Henchmen and Black Widows ducked for cover as there yet another huge explosion that sent a wave of sparks and burning splinters flying away… but the initial screams were quickly replaced by cheers as FINALLY, the flames to the left of them started to dim.

"Right! One more to the left!" Ralph ordered, stunned that no one had yet bothered to question the fact that he had them attacking a blazing fire even though there were enemy forces gathering for a possible attack… let alone who he was or what he was doing in charge.

Then again, he thought, he'd never really much questioned anything during his time in Henchco… not until the last few days that was. It was easier, and safer, to just be one of the guys in the background. Not to ask questions. And as the Widow who'd taken off with the other half of the mortar team had mused, once you made the damn fool mistake of opening your mouth and volunteering for something, you suddenly seemed to find yourself volunteering again and again until other people were volunteering you for you.

Which, in a nutshell, was exactly how in the space of a few days, a dopey guy named Ralph Emerson Shepherd had, rocketed from being part of the scenery to the person calling the shots. Literally.

"Just a bit more… about six more degrees…"

Well, he'd always wondered how Kim Possible had got suckered into the full time hero biz. Now he knew.

"Ready… FIRE!"

###################################

Dash staggered back again as his perfectly executed Bando Thaing strikemissed the svelte form of his opponent and he received a quick jab to the stomach in return. This was IMPOSSIBLE!

They'd been going at it for nearly ten minutes now, during which time he'd seen Possible segue through Stav, Tae Kwan Do, Savate, multiple forms of kung fu: Hung-Gar, WuShu, Wing Chun… where she seemed to have a special affinity for Mantis and Snake… and a bunch of shit he hadn't even recognized.

Whatever it was that she was using at the moment, though, it was fucking effective. He was battered and bruised in a hundred places and in the entire time he'd managed to land THREE… just THREE solid hits on the whirling dervish. Only two of those had been serious enough to make her back off… not that that meant anything because he was sure he'd felt a rib give on the last, and she was coming back for more.

On the plus side: he was built to take this kind of damage and she wasn't. There was blood trickling out of the corner of Possible's mouth, even though he'd never managed to hit her face, so something was hurting her badly. Better yet, she was slowing down. His strikes were getting closer and hers were having less sting. If he could suck it up just a bit longer, land one or two more good ones…

And then she was on him again.

###################################

"We've got the master communications back up and running sir," The Widow radio man informed Cholla.

The Black Widow Commander grunted curtly in acknowledgement. As far as he was concerned, the com system should have never gone down in the first place, but it was like there was a gremlin plaguing the camp. The ammo dump explosion had been the worst, but the Scorpion and Leviathan weapons systems mysteriously frying out was equally bizarre, and the master com due to a single circuit overloading for no apparent reason was the capper. Could the situation possibly get any worse?

The private phone to Hench began to ring.

Ask a stupid question he groaned, knowing that his boss was just calling to back seat quarterback again.

"Yes sir," He answered politely.

Meanwhile his 'Gremlin'… well, she WAS green and prone to great mischief… walked away with a smile on the quickly borrowed face of Widow Radio Tech Ernest Higgins, who was currently sleeping off the mother of all headaches in a badgerhole several hundred feet outside the camp perimeter… along with Weapons Tech Lee and two guards whose names she hadn't needed to memorize.

###################################

The small group of zodiacs… inflatable boats driven by almost silent electric motors slid across the surface of the lake in near silence. Not complete silence, though the whipping sound of the freezing water hitting the bows and dissipating in frosty V's of grey against the ink-black water was completely drowned by the sound of the inferno raging on shore. No, the sound that had to be impossible to miss was the sound of the pulsing throb of the heartbeats of two dozen plus four men who would rather be anyplace else in the world except HERE.

Not that they had much choice. At their backs were their commanders, a madwoman and a psychopath, both quite willing to put a bullet through the brain of anyone who argued too hard against their orders. In front of them… a fire the size of a dozen city blocks and an opposing enemy force five times their size.

And their 'job,' if you could call it that and not simply suicide, was to 'distract' that opposing force while the other strike teams that Nane had put into motion played out their part of the deal. It hadn't sounded all that appealing when they and the other half of the Morituri force had slipped back into the oppressive darkness of the lake, but since the two units had split just a handful of minutes ago, the ridiculously small number of men they had to perform the feint made the task seem insurmountable.

Of course, that's if you took the idea of SURVIVING the operation as one of the basic mission goals. But given that this force took its name from the latin phrase _morituri te salutan_… _'we who are about to die, salute you'_… once issued by gladiators entering a coliseum, there was a growing consensus that that had never been part of the plan.

Which was why… privately, of course, and only in unspoken terms… they'd all agreed to be the quietest distraction anyone had ever heard of, and if the opportunity to 'disappear into them piney woods' were to present itself, they'd find a way to simultaneously sabotage their communications gear. If there was one thing that Henchco Henchmen were good at, it was finding someplace else to be when the sitch hit the fan. Full medical coverage not withstanding.

Rather like cockroaches, actually.

Unfortunately, none of these Henches ever saw the explosion that hit them coming.

###################################

Kim waited for Dash to launch another of his devastating spinning kicks, dropped at the last second, slipped under the flying limb and came up in a crouch, kicking her left leg back to impact the leg that was the man's only support. He went over but… Damnit! caught himself with the other leg as it came down. He was proving to be far better than she'd expected. Not in her or Shego's class normally but…

Kim hated to admit it as she flipped herself back up, but all the damage she'd taken tonight was adding up, and not in her favor. She'd let herself get involved in the fight too emotionally at first, had intentionally restricted herself to a handful of forms to draw him out. Dash was a better than average fighter, but she'd forgotten that he was smart too… something she normally didn't have to worry about while fighting Henchco thugs, who were the only people in Dash's side range that she normally went up against. The extra play she'd allowed had given him time to figure out how to counter some of her basic moves and the slippery surface of the ice covered rock caused her to lose half the energy of everything she hit him with via simple slippage.

Right now she was still theoretically the better fighter, but Dash was steering this into a battle of attrition. Like the Russian army and General Winter grinding Germany's elite troops into a similar snow-covered terrain, the longer they kept going, the more the odds tilted in his favor.

Time to finish this.

###################################

Dash barely had time to react, striking at the spot where Possible HAD been with a flying _Te tat _roundhouse kick, he found that not only was he connecting with empty air, but the impossible woman had somehow not only anticipated his move and back-flipped away, she actually came TOWARDS him while spinning and came down lightly on top of his still extended leg, using it as a runway as she RAN up his own body and kicked him three more times in the face before jumping off his shoulders, twirling in flight to land behind him and deliver yet a FOURTH kick that sent him staggering forward!

Spitting blood, the agonizing pain in his lower left arm told him his left wrist had joined his nose and teeth in the 'in need of repair' department. Dash swung about, trying to track his body and the _Te klap lang _spinning heel kicksfast enough to follow the nimble cheerleader as she danced about him. Three times he managed to get close enough to ALMOST hit her, but each time she easily slapped what should have been bone shattering. Finally, luck was with him… most likely the slippery footing causing her to slide slightly, and he FINALLY slammed a good one, the mother of all kicks, into the side she had been trying to cover.

The Muay Thai kick is generally regarded as one of the most powerful in all of the martial arts, with a skilled _nak muay_ producing up to almost 1,000 pounds (4.4 kN) of force. Due to Dash's extreme size and diet of metabolic enhancers, he actually kicked HARDER than that, and the result was brutal. Kim's light weight actually helped in this particular case, as instead of absorbing most of the blow via snapping bones, she was instead flipped head over heels a dozen feet.

And instead of staying down and dying, she landed on her feet and charged again.

Dash was a man who rarely acknowledged fear. So far today he'd faced a helicopter crash, ninjas… even the threat of being micro-waved alive. However, he'd survived all of those with barely a scratch. On the other hand, this… inhuman creature in a female shape… even if he was wearing her down… had been wearing him down like no other opponent had managed since he was in his teens. And as his own reserves went past empty and sucked the dash-tank dry, Possible pulled yet another kind of rabbit-punch out of her hat.

Zui Quan. Drunken boxing. It was like trying to hit the water in a stream… to catch a handful of clouds. Suddenly nothing Dash had was even close, and as he saw the look on Possible's face he knew what Satan would be wearing for him at the gates of hell. Because only the devil himself could move like this!

And then the hits started raining even faster, so fast that he couldn't even see the source. It was like being stuck inside a tornado filled with hammers! Possible was everywhere and she was nowhere, kissing him with pain with small black gloved hands that felt like burning steel. Dash never even saw which direction they were coming from, not even before his vision blurred, and then everything went blissfully black and the agony was gone.

###################################

Finally! Ralph gave a sigh of relief as the last firebomb managed to achieve what they'd been fighting for… a clean firebreak between the…

Without warning, the tracer fire came arcing through the suddenly cleared firebreak!

"Hit the dirt!" One of the widows, the nominal team commander, screamed, ignoring his own instructions and promptly taking a hit in the shoulder that blew him back a dozen feet with his uniform ablaze! The unlucky bastard had taken a direct hit with a tracer. But that was only the LEAST of the fire team's problems.

By sheer chance, another bullet somehow managed to hit the vehicle they'd been using, flying straight into the open back door of the leviathan and striking one of the remaining bombs.

The explosion was truly spectacular.

"Put him out!" Ralph commanded, as everyone else hit the ground and started pulling out weapons. Motioning to the two nearest men… both Widows.. he pointed to the burning man with a sharp hand motion and they quickly scrambled on all fours to their stricken comrade and began beating the flames out with the Kevlar vests they'd had clipped to their belts. Ever since getting so close to the forest fire that they could have roasted weenies on their weenies, most of the team had stripped down to the bare essentials… just the Henchco flame-resistant outer jackets to shed the ever present sparks.

"Can anyone see anything?" He demanded.

"Through this smoke?" Another Widow next to him groaned. "Hell no."

"Damn," Ralph swore, unconsciously taking charge yet again. "How's Bacon?"

"Alive but crispy," Came back the response from the one of the widows who'd got to beat out his teammate. "Won't ever play tennis again."

"Couldn't play tennis worth shit before," the other muttered. "Might be a mercy."

"So what do we do now… sir?" A third Widow asked Ralph directly.

"I don't…" Ralph began, but was cut off by a distant voice hailing out of the smoke.

"Bang bang…? You're dead…?" The plaintive tones hailed. "Helllooooo?"

Holy shit. They might all have a chance of getting out of this alive!

"Bang! Ouch! Let's say we're wounded and willing to talk," Ralph shouted back. "Parley?"

There was a long, pregnant pause, and then the voice returned. "Okay… but we've got you covered. Send one person and we'll talk."

Ralph looked at the Widows and the handful of other Henches… all of whom seemed to have somehow not heard that last bit. Not that he had expected them to.

"Okay!" Ralph yelled, starting to stand. "Give me must just a second!"

Looking back at the anxious men lying across the ground, weapons ready, he cocked one eyebrow suspiciously. "You're not going to shoot while I'm negotiating, right?"

"Oh no!" "No way!""Not us sir!" Under a flag of truce? Never crossed our minds!" came back the hastily whispered responses.

"Riiiight," Ralph sighed, finished the rise to his feet, hands held in the air. "I'm coming!"

###################################

"Damn…" Kim swore, gasping for breath as she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her sleeve, then dug into her utility belt for yet another set of zip-tie restraints. Quickly binding Dash's arms behind his back, she stopped… took a good hard look at the size of him massive hands and wrists that were wider than her biceps… then pulled out two more sets and tripled the number of restraints securing his wrists. Another triple set bound his feet and then it was all she could manage to drop to her knees and force the man's massive legs back up to where she could complete the ankle to wrist hog-ties. By now she was grunting heavily, the exertion of fighting against the dead weight of his unconscious muscles ironically giving her as much pain as he had managed to inflict… outside of that handful of kicks.

Of course, those kicks had been more than enough. Getting back to her feet was agony and the last painkiller that she'd been hoarding went down her throat dry.

"Wade?" She managed in what she hoped was a normal tone. "T.I. is down for the count. How long 'til I can get a pick up back to Ron?"

"Um… Kim?" Wades voice appeared in her ear. "Why am I not seeing your face on visual?"

"Because I took my helmet off," Kim explained, walking back towards the spot where she'd taken it off and picking it up in front of her so that the external cam framed her face. "See? And before you ask, yes, it was a damned stupid thing to do and I'm docking my own pay for a week as punishment."

"Er…" Wade's voice wavered. "Kim… you look…"

"I know." She snapped, remembering to wipe the blood off the corner of her mouth again. "ETA?"

"The hovercraft can pick you and the others in about ten… they're offloading Crash and Burn to Global Justice One. Ron's team has already left so… and I'm saying this as a friend, Kim. Why don't you just take a few minutes to catch your breath?"

"Because…" Kim began but broke off, realizing that she didn't have an answer beyond _"because I can't stop myself." _

"Yeah, okay," she relented, pulling out yet another of her dwindling supply of zip ties as she headed towards Adrena Lynne's unconscious form. "Let me tie up the loose ends here and I'll take five. I promise."

"Sure thing. I've got a three way going with Ron and Yori I've got to get back to, okay?"

That brought a much needed giggle. "What can I say Wade? You rock but you need to start studying your double entendres."

"What? Oh. OH!" Wade's voice cracked and Kim was sorry she hadn't put her helmet back on yet. The blush on her friend's face had to be a beaut.

"Call me in a few," Kim chuckled as Wade hastily signed off the little magic radio in her head, then reached for Adrena's shoulder to flip the faux-blonde's body over to free her trapped wrists.

"Surprise, Bitch," Adrena snarled with a feral grin as she flipped with incredible speed, smoothly sliding the knife her body had been hiding straight up into Kim's gut.

###################################

While a half dozen armed forces maneuvered around Castle Senior, the nominal commander of the most secure position on the entire field of battle was making some brilliant military decisions of his own.

Good enough, in fact, to raise his War Of Worldcrest avatar a full level in the solo-player version he kept on his Portable PocketPal. Junior loved his PP and had become quite adept at playing with it over the last few weeks, and was therefore quite justifiably irate when one of his henchman interrupted a particularly brilliant move by jostling his shoulder.

"WHAT?" Junior screamed, looking at his now no longer perfect game then back at his harasser. "I will have you shot and tortured for that!"

"But Sir!" The annoying man implored. "You told us to get you if there was something that you needed to know, and you really need to answer her. About Possible."

"What?" Junior repeated, having finally snapped to the fact that something was FINALLY happening. "Answer who?"

That's when he became aware of the voice that was speaking over the radio. A female voice.

"I've got Possible, Senior. But if you still want the bitch, it's time to talk euros... and make it fast, because at the rate she's bleeding, she won't last long."

#################################

Nane and Gemini looked each other and then at the portable radio man's instruments as he fought to pinpoint the exact location of the intercepted transmission.

"Map." Nane commanded and the expensive holomap she'd have paid a fortune for if she hadn't simply taken it off the body of its former owner shimmered to life.

"Got it," the radio man grunted in relief and a red tracking marker appeared on the screen… moving straight for Castle Senior.

"I'm taking the Omega's around in a flanking maneuver," Nane ordered, her boney finger tracing out the pattern for her team commanders and Gemini. "Maybe we can cut them off before they get there, but if you take the Kamikaze's straight to the castle, we'll be the hammer and anvil."

"Why can't I have the Omega's?" Gemini whined, ignoring all the strategy for a chance to be sulky and petulant.

"With your record of shooting people with Greek letters for names?" Nane sneered. "I wouldn't trust you to arrive with a single man left."

'_Never mind,'_ she thought, with a barely contained cackle of glee that would have been perfectly suited for a production of 'Wicked,' _'That there won't be any men left anyway after I've claimed the prize.' _

"_Woof!"_Added Pepe, glad there was finally going to be some _major_ violence.

###################################

"We're moving! Now!" Cholla shouted at his lieutenants as he raced from the radio intercept tent. "They're taking her to Castle Senior!"

###################################

"Think they bit on it?" 'Camille Leon' nervously asked the bound up girl next to her.

"There is only one way to find out," 'Kim Possible' grinned. "Bonnie-san."

"I can't believe I'm going right back into the fire," Camille Leon aka Bonnie Rockwaller sighed, shaking her head, "But I owe Junior a major ass kicking."

"Then let's drive BonBon," Henchco Henchman Ron Stoppable grinned as he fired up the captured truck. "Let's drive!"

###################################

Adrena Lynne gaped at the iron hand that held her wrist completely immobile.

"Unconscious people's muscles don't contract when someone approaches them," Kim Possible informed her with an unusually calm voice, even as the pressure around Adrena's knife hand continued to build. "Also, your breathing rhythm was all wrong."

Desperately, Adrena grabbed for one of her other hidden knives, but was instead thrown against the rocks like a wet towel being snapped at someone in a locker room... even as Kim never released the trapped wrist.

The crack was like someone snapping a tree limb and Adrena screamed as the bones of her forearm simply ceased to be.

"I don't have time for this," Kim sighed, and took the caterwauling woman out with a simple kick to the face. There. Peace and quiet.

Strange, it didn't really qualify as the break Wade had all but ordered to take, but it felt damn good all the same.

###################################

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:**__ Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Jack Hench, Camille Leon, Bonnie Rockwaller, Yori, Senor Senior Jr., Nanny Nane, Gemini, Adrena Lynn, Dash, Crash and Burn aka Team Impossible and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Sam Jackson (no relation), Ralph Emerson Shepherd, Jose Mendoza, Stevens and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _


	57. Chapter 57

_**Author's Note:** Yes, it's been a while since the last update. Ironically, a good part of that has been because I've been working on a very Kim-like project on the day job, and it felt rather like cheating on the folks who pay me to spend too much time on ATCOTS, which is VERY similar in tone, while we were running way behind on that process. (Comedy stuff has an entirely different vibe and is kind of a release valve for me, so that's why you've mostly been getting sillier things like HOMICIDAL FOR THE HOLIDAYS instead.) Fortunately, the schedule's stabilized just a bit on that show, and I've been dying to get back to this one so I plugged in Two Steps From Hell's ARCHANGEL for mood music and made it my goal to have this installment out for Xmas. Hope it was worth the wait. Ho ho ho. **Ye Old Legal stuff is at the bottom.** _

###############################

**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM**

Chapter 57

###############################

The acrid stench of the smoke swirling across the charbroiled landscape was overwhelming, like having the remains of a dirty ashtray shoveled up ones nose. As it happened, he'd once gargled with the remains of an ashtray in response to the kind of insanely stupid bet that only a recently graduated High School student would be idiotic enough to attempt, so he actually had a pretty good yardstick to measure the smell against as he carefully made his way through the coal-colored field of collapsed logs and jutting vertical spikes that had been a beautiful forest only a few hours before. In his years as a Henchman, he'd become used to random acts of destruction, but this vision of hell was one of the most exceptionally appalling displays of pointlessly irrational and needless devastation that he could remember. As a longtime member of the Sierra Club, he knew that he was going to have to do something beyond his annual donation to help atone for his own part in similar acts of violence against nature in the past… adopt a highway, save some whales… Of course, that was IF he survived this night, something that was very much still in doubt…

"Hello!" He yelled into the billowing haze that appeared white in the thin beam of the recon flashlight he held in one hand, turned to rolling waves of Stygian blackness wherever the flashlight and the occasional patch of still glowing embers weren't. "Bang bang?"

"I'm dead!" Came a voice to his left and he turned, the beam catching a heavy-set man in Henchco Cold Weather Gear holding a sock on the end a stick in the traditional Henchman sign of truce. The man was covered with every bit as much grime and soot as he knew he must be covered with himself, but even the thick coat of pitch couldn't have disguised the huge grin on the unexpectedly familiar features.

"RALPH?" Sam Jackson blurted, almost dropping his light in surprise. "What in the hell are you doing here?"

"Apparently finally getting some decent karma," Ralph continued to smile oddly as he tossed aside his sock stick. "Especially if you're as flexible in your thinking as I think you are."

"Well, THAT would certainly be a nice change," A voice purred from behind Sam… a voice he instantly recognized and that caused his bowels to come perilously close to flowing over.

"Because while I'd have no problem taking out two more fire teams all by my lonesome," Shego continued, materializing out of the smoke and haze like an evil, green Cheshire Cat, "I'm sure there'd probably be just a bit more burn damage and incidental carnage than my Princess would be really happy with."

"And since I REALLY don't want Kitten to get upset with me," She continued, idly sharpening her claws as she stalked past the stunned Sam to stand next to a completely unperturbed Ralph, "I'd be so much happier if there's a way we can settle this situation with only a REASONABLE amount of violence and mayhem. I'm sure you'd like that too, right, Mister Flexible Friend?"

"Uh… right?" Sam gulped, deciding that maybe he should concentrate solely on being INSANELY flexible and attentive for the next few minutes.

"Good boy," Shego cooed as she and Ralph exchanged knowing looks with each other. "This is going to make things SO much easier!"

Sam continued to nod furiously as the former villain and his maybe former colleague studied him in the same way that lions might study a wounded gazelle. He could see the question in their eyes: _Where to bite first?_

And yet, as terrifying as their expressions were, there was something even more worrying in the back of his head. If Shego was HERE…

Then where in the hell was Possible?

###############################

"There she is!" Cyn Rushing yelled as the small hovercraft flitted in over the trees to the wide clearing where Kim Possible sat on a large outcrop of rock, the young hero's lithe figure rested in a pose uncannily like one immortalized by Rodin, elbow on knee, knuckles to chin… Of course, The Thinker obviously wasn't dangling his feet over a thirty foot drop, nor was he accompanied by any other figures, whereas Kim was sitting above the bound forms of the latest two additions to the redhead's growing collection of zip-tied arch foes. On the plus side, it WAS, at least, a brief moment of relative physical inactivity for the young hero, though 'rest' was a much too generous term to call it given that Kim had spent the seven minutes since the hover crew received the okay to pick up the unconscious and lashed body of Crash (now snoozing away in an artificially enhanced sleep next to his equally out of it partner Burn) splinting Adrena's broken arm and dragging both the ex-tv star and Dash to a convenient pickup location, all while involved in some complex conversation with Dr. Director, Wade and Will that Cyn hadn't had time to follow. Honestly, the blonde photographer hadn't even tried. She'd quickly learned that the time and effort required for the on the fly editing of her vast array of video elements (both from the various recon cams the team had dropped and the satellite footage the Possible twins had been firing at her,) coupled with her own physical contribution to the 'bag and tag' operation that she, Gay, Rufus and Stevens were engaged in, had been more than enough to keep her synapses on the edge of overload. How Kim could be handling even more while actually on the ground in the middle of everything was completely beyond Cyn…

But, that's was what made her Kim, wasn't it? Although as Stevens brought the hovercraft and Kim staggered to her feet and half-ran to meet Cyn and Gay as they came down the gangplank with the SKED… a travois-type stretcher they'd turned into a prisoner transport device… Cyn could see there were limits to even Possible's extraordinary reserves. Even if they hadn't been able to see the unusual pallor of Kim's face, it would have been hard for Cyn and Gay to not hear the barely restrained grunt of pain that Kim made as she bent over to try to help the others roll the massive Dash onto the collapsed gurney. That was clue enough for the SWAT officer to gently push the redhead's hands away when the hero attempted to grab one of the handles.

"We've got it, Ms. Possible, " Gay kept a straight cop's face on as she told what was only just a little of a bit of a white lie. "Cyn and I have worked out a routine for this and you'll probably just throw off our rhythm."

"Yeah," Cyn jumped in. The truth was that moving the massive mercenary to the hovercraft wasn't really all that much of a big. Gay and Cyn were both used to lifting heavy weights as part of their normal jobs, and the one thing that would have made it a truly arduous task… the process of dragging Dash over the top of the ice-covered rocks and snow… would be minimized by the breeches buoy cable they were trailing behind them. With the other end was attached to a winch mechanism inside the Hovercraft, all they had to do was attach their end to a piton (which Kim had already produced from one of her utility pockets and driven in a rock face with her grappler,) and then the entire SKED could be lifted off the ground and slid back along the cable like a one-person ski lift. It seemed a bit complex at first, especially given that SKED was also designed to be slid along the ground on either it's internal wheels or across snow, and they'd actually tried that with Burn, THINKING it would be quicker. It wasn't. Pulling the travois along rocky ground imparted an erratic motion that made the gurney buck and roll like a ship in an exceptionally rough sea, and after nearly capsizing three times, they'd realized it really was much more efficient to lay the cables out and let Global Justice's equipment… based, according to Wade, on an old design Kim had apparently scribbled on the back of a math quiz during her junior year of high school… do the heavy lifting.

On the other hand, the act of physically lifting the massive Dash on and off the SKED was still an act of pure woman power, and THAT would probably require a few Naproxen Sodiums and the application of a little liniment in the morning. Though the part about applying the liniment did make for a nice excuse for some other forms of personal contact, and she knew Gay would be more than willing.

"Why don't you just take it easy for a few more minutes," She fake-smiled at Kim, "And we'll be right back to pick up the other one."

"Uh… sure," Kim blinked in surprise. "Okay."

Kim sat and watched as the other two women began moving the merc with a bemused expression on her face. Why was everyone so determined to coddle her all of the sudden?

Then again, she thought, as she watched them start to lift Dash and remembered the shooting pain in her side as she dragged him and Adrena to the pickup zone, maybe she wasn't all that eager. Sometimes it made sense to wait until conditions were a little more favorable like…

And that's when it hit her.

"Get him on board NOW!" She ordered, tossing Adrena's unconscious form over her shoulders in a modified fireman's carry without a second thought and bolting headlong towards the hovercraft at a breakneck pace, every fiber of her being screaming to move faster as she began to fire new instructions out at a rate that made even her flying form seem motionless by comparison.

################################

"Understood and transmitting," Dr. Director fired back in response to Kim's latest update, then whirled to face the red dot covered sit-rep board in front of her. The pale look on Possible's face worried her, things were really coming down to the wire and this latest improvisation of the redhead's, if it worked, was going to require even tighter timing than her even people were normally used to. Still, if it paid off...

Well, there was nothing to do but thank God that it was Will Du who would be taking the point. Loaning him out to an even more demanding taskmaster had been just the kick in the pants he'd needed, and now that the broomstick had been dislodged from his butt, the amazing skills and talent that Global Justice had hired him for were finally blossoming in a most rewarding fashion. She'd have to start plotting a way to steal him back, of course, but it would be tricky without being incredibly obvious about it. In the meantime, though, she'd have to make do on her end with the handful of the handful of agents she had clearing the towns below the dam. There had to be someone who was far enough ahead that she could spare…

"_Aha!"_ She thought, and started moving her own pieces into place.

################################

"Get us in the air!" Kim was barking as Cyn slid inside just in time to miss being cut in half by the hovercraft's mechanical doors.

"We're in!" Cyn yelled, ignoring the bucking of the Hover as Stevens gunned the strange airship forward at just over tree level as she finished helping Gay woman-handle Dash from the SKED into the cargo webbing they'd been using to hold the former members of Team Impossible in place. Practically unbreakable yet unbelievably clingy, it had been the best they could come up with to both physically restrain the prisoners AND keep them from sliding around the hover floor… something Cyn wouldn't have minded for herself given the way Stevens was handling the machine. Wherever they were going now, they were going there at double the speed the hover had previously exhibited.

Letting Gay finish the task of securing the neural-feedback bracelets that administered the electronic equivalent of a 'sleepy time' drug to the down for the count prisoners, Cyn finally had time to turn and take a look at Kim, who had dropped Adrena at Gay's feet and made a beeline for the med kit.

"Sorry," Kim apologized as she pulled a loose handful of pain killers from the kit and dropped into the co-pilot's chair next to Stevens.

"Sorry?" Cyn asked, stunned that Kim had just caught up with them while carrying the ex-convict on her back and worried what that might have done to her condition.

"I promised you and Anna that I was going to keep you out of harm's way," The teen hero looked back shamefacedly before popping back a dozen various forms of tablets. "But I just realized I made one major mistake in planning how we take Junior… and the only way I can fix it is to get to the Castle before anyone else."

"Which means," Kim sighed, "That things might be about to get a little hairy."

#################################

Global Justice Italia Agent Servicio Chiccolini shook his head in confusion. He and his team had finally managed to get the last stubborn octogenarian out of the retirement facility that was doomed to be swept away if the dam broke, and had just put the crusty senior citizen of indeterminate sex on the evacuation bus when he'd received his new orders. The fact that he'd been contacted directly by THE Doctor Director herself was an indication that either his reputation within the organization was on the rise or that the situation was indeed desperate, but either way, he had this horrible feeling that there surely must have been some kind of translation error. That COULDN'T have been what he'd been ordered to do, could it?

"Did you hear the same thing I did?" He demanded of at his frequent mission partner, Giupsepe Teaslowli, who had studied in London for four years and thus had listened to the instructions in the original English rather than through GJ's sometimes erratic communications translators.

"Si," Giusepe shrugged. "She said duck pond."

"Why a duck? And axes?" Chiccolini puzzled, but obediently began to move towards the town square. Sometimes the hands of Global Justice worked in ways so mysterious that not even the fingers on those hands knew what they were doing. And apparently, when the roles for this mission were given out, Chiccolini had been given the finger.

################################

Shego had to admit, the stunned shitless face on the Hench in front of her had been priceless, but as part of the team that Nane and Gemini had dropped in on top of them, he represented a key element in handling the biggest wild card still in the game. If Ralph could work a conversion, it would make taking on the granny from hell's forces just a little easier… and at this point easy was what was called for. The green woman's own energy levels were beginning to drop and she'd seen a lot less action than Kim had.

Oh, she'd been all for dropping what she was doing and calling in the hover to send her in to help Kim with those Team Impossible asshats, but she knew in her heart that they really had no chance against her favorite sparring partner. And while Kim had been punching and kicking, Shego had been taking advantage of all the extra timers and explosives that she'd been able to borrow from the widow's own ammo dump. She wasn't in Kim's class with the devices yet, but she'd had Wade and the Twins available in constant teleconference and they'd been more than up to the task of making helpful 'suggestions.'

###############################

Will grimaced as he whirled Global Rescue One in a tight arc and brought it down in the small town square that hadn't changed since sometime before the first World War, barely missing the antique gazebo that had been inconveniently placed next to the huge frozen duck pond. Damned historic landmarks. But at least some of the town had been brought up to modern specs, which was why he was here.

Even as the massive vehicle was settling to the ground, Will had the giant hatch in the back dropping open. Granted, under normal circumstances it was a little small for what Kim wanted, but once he jettisoned everything that wasn't specifically welded down… which was most of it… it just might do.

The molecular saw that Kim's brothers had built as a science project in grade school… and had received an A plus as well as a week of detention for the results of the 'practical demonstration'… proved to be just the tool necessary to slice off the restraining bolts that held the heavy shelves and seating in place. Even with the onus of making sure everything was as recoverable as it could be, it still took just a few minutes of cutting before Will's job switched to the more muscle intensive task of pushing all the now temporarily surplus equipment unceremoniously into the street. In short order everything rear of the front cockpit was outside on the century old cobblestones, illuminated by the sporadic flashing red lights of the fire truck. Well, everything except Stoppable's precious stash of Bueno Nacho, which now occupied the co-pilot's seat.

"Let's do it boys," Will shouted to his former fellow GJ Agents as they tossed aside their hatchets and ran forward to mate their equipment with the sole low tech gear he hadn't dumped. "The boss ladies are waiting!"

Given brief moment of respite, Will stood back as the agents began a process that seemed just a tiny bit crazy. Okay, a LOT crazy.

But then again, when you were working for someone who packed a dozen three-thousand GALLON condoms as part of their basic work kit, was the proper phrase crazy like a fox?

Possibly.

################################

"That's right, Mr. Hench," Commander Cholla replied tersely to the micro-managing non-combatant who couldn't seem to let the professionals do their work in piece. The last thing he needed while traveling in an armored troop carrier at high speed through treacherous landscape covered with ice and full of hidden rocks, crevices, canyons and pitfalls… not to mention all of the God Damned TREES… was having to answer the CEO's questions every six minutes. "We've confirmed that a team of Senior's people… including your own double agent who seems to have triple crossed you… have Possible and are heading towards the castle. We've got better gear and heavier weapons, and are on course to intercept. At this point, the only question is whether we take them in the open or have to blow up the castle to get her. Either way, it's in the bag."

"Not until I see Possible's head IN a bag," the Henchco Head growled back. "This operation is going to cost me a fortune no matter what, but I want her one hundred percent confirmed dead with graphic evidence… even if it means you have to blow away every Hench on the continent to do it."

"That's already understood. Case Zeta, as you said," the Widow Commander acknowledged. "You can always hire more of their ilk…"

And then the explosion took the entire undercarriage out of the troop carrier and Cholla was screaming like a little girl as the entire vehicle went flying ass-end over head a dozen feet in the air, where it's fall was fortunately broken by some unfortunate trees.

But that was only the beginning of the Widow's problems… or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that it was just one small part.

Because at the same moment that Cholla's Leviathan decided to see if it could fly, every single other vehicle in the Widow's entire assault force suffered exactly the same fate.

Shego had been a VERY busy girl.

###############################

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:** Kim Possible, Shego, Doctor Director, Will Du, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Jack Hench, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr. ,Jim and Tim Possible, Nanny Nane, Gemini, Adrena Lynn, Dash, Crash and Burn aka Team Impossible and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters like Sam Jackson (no relation), Ralph Emerson Shepherd, Jose Mendoza, Stevens and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _


	58. Chapter 58

_**Author's Note:** Yes, I'm back. RL has been hectic, and this chapter has sat half written for well over a month while I took on a major project that had to be done two days before I started it. ;p On the plus side, I'm sending this right before I head to Tokyo for the Animation Fairs, and that means I'll have a lot of time in the middle of the night to write in. (My Jet Lag is your benefit!) Sorry if there are more than the usual number of typos, but I wanted to get this off before I headed to the airport._

_Oh, and also… _

_**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM, THE PRINCESS DIARIES, THE BACK UP PLAN, THE KIMBERLY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, ONE UPWOMANSHIP, PUTTING IT ON, DISCO KIMFERNO **__and even__** SO NOT ANOTHER KIGO STORY**__ are all in the final round of the latest Fannie Awards. Now, I'm not one to use bribery… hold on, yes I am… and I can pretty much guarantee that any title that wins a category is going to get more new chapters pronto. Is that a subtle enough hint? Details on my Profile page, or in the KP DISCUSSION forum. __**2011 Fannie Awards - Final Round**__. __Vote early, vote often! And yes, __**Ye Old Legal stuff is STILL at de bottom!  
**_

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**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM**

Chapter 58

################################

Jack Hench stared at the encrypted phone linking him to his on the ground commander. The phone in had gone so suddenly silent. The signal had been cut off, obviously, and such things happened all the time… even when working with the best technology in the world.

And yet…

For the two dozenth time since this entire debacle began, he felt the icy fingers of fate running up and down his spine. The material losses they'd run up in the plan to take Possible had already been abnormally heavy, and ever since the reports of the ammo dump explosion, he'd been bracing for even worse news.

A normal unit of Henches and their equipment was expensive, but that was pocket change compared to the investment that the Widows represented. And the lack of response from Cholla was an ominous sign that he could have just lost millions more in assets that he couldn't afford to replace right now.

Assets that, if were honest with himself, he was probably going to lose no matter what. What had he been thinking? He KNEW what happened to any Hench unit that had the misfortune to run across Possible, and he'd gone and put all but a handful of his remaining resources directly the path of the cheerleader of the apocalypse. It had been one thing to accept that he was most likely going to lose the divisions sent to Senior and Gemini, but those men had been bought and paid for. The Widows, on the other hand, were there on his own tab, and if he lost a sizeable portion of them as well…

In the back of his head, he heard that fat bastard Brotherson giggling. Bit by bit, piece by piece, his empire was being stripped to the bone. And when you're in a pool filled with piranhas, there's really only one way to save yourself. You grabbed what you could and ran.

Carefully ignoring the collection of red, black and silver phones… the ones that his tech people had scanned and assured him were 'safe' just before the green one had fried his hand…. he broke his own policy of never leaving direct lines open and left the channel to Cholla unsevered. In the case that is WAS a technical glitch, he wanted to know what was going on as soon as possible, but he had other business that needed to be attended to. Switching back to the normal coded interoffice system, a single hit of the re-dial button was all that was needed to bring up his accountant.

"Raymond? I think we need to start assembling that other package. The one we didn't want to put together."

There was a long pause, and when a response finally came back, it wasn't the voice that Hench had been expecting.

"Um, this is Monica Gruber, Sir, Mister Fyre's assistant," the nervous female voice began. "Mister Fyre hasn't come back yet. What… package are you talking about?"

Biting his tongue, Hench restrained the impulse to rip the junior accountant's head off. From what he knew, Moni Gruber was a competent employee and he had damn few of them left. And more importantly, he couldn't let anyone know that something might be wrong… just in case he was over reacting.

"It's not important," He lied. "When will Raymond be back?"

"I… I'm confused sir. You mean he didn't just leave your office? He said he was coming to brief you on the problem personally."

"Problem?" Hench snapped, "What problem?"

################################

Cyn, Gay and Stevens all stared at Kim. Well, Cyn and Gay did. Stevens was doing a sort of wary looking out of his right eye while his left concentrated on the ground speeding beneath them, which had much the same effect. Which wasn't surprising, because when a demi-goddess like Kim Possible defined a situation as about to get 'a little hairy,' the lesser mortals in her orbit had reason to get a little worried.

"What…" Cyn finally managed to ask for the group, "Do you define as "major mistake"?

"Huh?" Kim blinked, wincing as she dabbed at a small cut on her chin with an anti-septic gauze. "Oh, that. It's all about motivation."

"Motivation?" Gay echoed.

"Yeah," Kim frowned, setting the kit on her lap, as she tried to frame her words. "Nothing about this whole sitch has made a lot of sense. As much as I don't like it, I can understand someone wanting me dead… but if you want me dead, why pair a former reporter with someone like the Mathter? They had to know that would send the odds that it would get out through the roof, which implies that they wanted me to know it was coming. Why post an insane bounty and make some kind of game out of it by only inviting my old enemies? And for that matter, why use supervillains in the first place? As Shego keeps reminding me, my skull's not immune to bullets, so why not just hire enough professional assassins to blanket Middleton?"

The teen heroine growled as she shook her tangled red mane of helmet hair and rubbed the bridge of her nose with a pair of swelling fingers. "That's been running in the back of my head for a while now, and the longer this has gone on, the less it's made sense. Especially with the collateral damage everyone seems to be willing to take."

"I mean," Kim's scowl deepened. "It's just not rational… a half-billion dollars sounds like a lot of money, but the Skyvixen and a working Tripod would have been worth nearly that before they were trashed… and landing a fleet of hyper-transports in a lake filled with ice?"

"That's pushing a half billion too," Stevens agreed. "More if they lost more than one. But as you said, they're all ex-enemies. Revenge…"

"Right," Kim nodded grimly at Adrena's unconscious form. "There's some of that at the core. And some out and out insanity, like in Junior's and Adrena's case. But…"

"But what I can't get out of my head is what if there's an even bigger game behind the game? What if the supervillains and the money are just smoke and mirrors, and whoever's behind all of this is intentionally throwing accelerants on the flames, making everything burn hotter and pushing everyone harder, faster and farther than they'd ever push themselves in an ever increasing cycle?"

"Terror management," Stevens interrupted. "That's what you're talking about, right?"

"That's right. The way a terrorist organization primes a suicide bomber, drowning out the normal fear of mortality with a perceived greater reward." Kim paused for the briefest of seconds, staring strangely into space, and when she continued, it was almost in the manner of someone describing something she'd already seen happen. "If that's the case, if some of them have been primed that far, then will what I thought would be enough to stop them really be enough to do it? And if that's not, then what will?"

"That's why I need to get there," The former cheerleader finished, her normally vibrant green eyes suddenly looking very, very old. "I've got a really bad feeling about this. A feeling that someone's going to have to make a decision that will haunt them for the rest of their lives… because I think I know what the people behind this really want."

With a deep exhale, Kim made the slight head motion that Cyn had learned indicated her switching on her internal Kimmunicator.

"Wade? Have you been tracking my last conversation?"

"Um, not really," Wade's voice crackled over the hover's loudspeaker. "But I've got you and the hover on constant voice recorders, so I can catch up."

"Good enough. The past three minutes should be sufficient to explain why I need you and the guys to start running some searches and crunch some variables for me. We need to pull up the financial data for everyone who's involved in this madness, as well as social standings, known vendettas, everything, and find out what kind of connections there are between them. Make sure Senor Senior Sr. and Dr. Director look it over too. I want you to…"

"No, not me." Wade cut her off. "You want Dassak."

"The sack?" Kim blinked dazedly. "I'm tired but…"

"No, Helen Dassak. That's who you want to run the analysis," the young genius elaborated. "We'll pull data, but if you're looking for random connections, she's the one you want."

"Riiight…" Kim nodded slowly. "Of course. And here's the most important part: who stands to gain, or lose, the most if EVERYONE who's currently here is suddenly taken out of the picture? Because I've got a really strong hunch that this whole thing has never really been about me the way we thought… I'm not the target. I'm the weapon."

################################

"Hold up!" Commander Nane barked, though as the crotchety commando paused to look back, she saw that the order had hardly been necessary to the struggling contingent of Henches laid out in straggling line behind her. Although Nane had attempted to sort out the most physically fit third of Gemini's hire of Henches to form her own section of the three pronged attack, the fact was that most battle hardened troops would have been hard pressed to keep up with the pace the ancient mastiff-jowled woman was setting. Traveling as they were, across ice and snow with double-sized packs, the sweating mass of underpaid labor that formed Nane's Omegas had never stood a chance.

With a grunt of disgust, the battle-hardened battleaxe sprang up a nearby pile of boulders with the ease of a very spry, if incredibly ugly, mountain goat, while the crème de la crud piling up behind her did their best not to fall over on their own faces in gasping relief. If any of her Omegas even wondered why they had stopped, none dared venture the question… which might have been an attempt to feign competence or simply due to the fact that they simply lacked the breath to utter it in the first place.

Reaching the top of the small mount, Nane froze on point, her unfortunate resemblance to certain canine species being even more accentuated by her low crouch and the way her shaggy head twitched from side to side… while as the tiny dog that had taken up residence in her huge satchel bag duplicated her movements almost exactly, each of them attempting to pinpoint the original source and location of the distant booms that had caught Nane's attention in the first place.

Somewhere to the east was about the best they could determine with their ears alone. Pepe's ears were vastly superior of course, but this was one area in which the Notorious Nanny had a leg up on the pooch.

Aiming her battered battle umbrella in the general direction of Ursa Minor, Nane's knobby fingers depressed one of the multitude of hidden buttons concealed in the deceptively smooth-looking handle, sending the the upper portion of the ancient accessory rocketing skyward. The soft _whoosh_ was doubly punctuated, first by the rapid shick-shick-shick of the micro-thin data cable unspooling from the cloth-clad TOW missile as it hurtled heavenward, and then by the sharp protests of the odious doggette noise as Nane shoved him to one side of her massive carpetbag in order to remove the smoke-stained baby monitor that served as readout of her Baby Boom-Boom Bird's Eye reconnaissance system. With the practiced ease born of hundreds of missions and some extremely rough babysitting jobs, Nane snapped the data port in the umbrella handle into the monitor precisely… just as the umbrella-chute deployed and began the slow, spiraling descent that afforded the built-in camera a perfect 360 degree view in the full infrared, ultraviolet and visible spectrums.

Now THAT was interesting.

Clucking thoughtfully to herself, Nane triangulated the smoke rising from Shego's handiwork and made a few rough calculations using old-school division. It was unlikely that it was her own Morituris who had taken out the column… besides the fact that the timing was wrong, that they'd almost certainly have broken radio silence and that they wouldn't have stood a chance against real soldiers, she had the very real confirmation from the "tracking units" each one carried that they were barely off the lake. That meant that there was at least one other set of hostile forces in the area beyond the ones that she knew of… and that made it very likely, that they were being lured into some kind of trap.

On the other hand, the terror who had traumatized both the Hun and a whole nation of toddlers reflected, sometimes the best way to draw her opponent out was to let them think their trick HAD worked. Which was why she'd set Sheldon and his no doubt soon to be aptly named Kamikazes heading straight into the maws of whatever might be lying in wait out there. In the meantime, she and her Omegas would come around from behind, and if there was a hunter out there, to take them out when they were preoccupied with dealing with the flailing animals already in the snare.

And either way, the end result was probably not going to be favorable for little Sheldon. Because, in the end, there were really just too many pieces currently in play anyway. Someone else with forward thinking had already started taking out the extra pawns, knights and rooks, and it wasn't as if Nane didn't have a surplus of her own pawns to sacrifice.

A smile that would have looked more at home on a Jack O'Lantern than a human being split the Nanny from Hell's wrinkled face like a gaping axe wound. Games of attrition were something Nane was quite familiar with, and given that this was a game in which only the Queens mattered…

It was time to clear the board of all the superfluous pieces.

####################################

Having finally given up on the useless black field phone, Cholla carefully pried himself through the shattered wreckage of the Leviathan's front windscreen, uttering a half dozen grunts of pain as what would soon be the mothers of all bruises protested in tiny screams that felt like dozens of lobster forks simultaneously stabbing his skin from the inside. And yet, the fact that he could feel that pain at all was something of a miracle, as the explosion that had taken out his armored vehicle had been more than enough to reduce him to a meat paste. To say that he had gotten away lightly, even though he had actually taken the worst wounds of any man in the company, was an incredible understatement… but as hard as it was to believe, not a single Widow had been killed in the devastating attack.

The same couldn't be said for their equipment, however. Oh, the flames were still being beaten out of the undercarriages of several transports, but as he stared at the hulks of his shattered command, Cholla already knew it in his gut that every single vehicle had been reduced to something only a major engineering firm could salvage as anything but scrap.

If it wasn't for the fact that it would have hurt so much, he would have screamed and punched the nearest object, animate or inanimate. The brief notion that they'd somehow run into a hidden minefield had quickly transitioned to the realization that he'd just been the victim of one of the most brilliant and insulting cases of sabotage in military history. Brilliant, in how whoever had placed the bombs had managed to do so with such exquisite precision as to completely vaporize engine blocks, axels, treads and hydraulic systems while somehow not causing any major injury to personnel. And insulting, for exactly the same reason: the insinuation that their unknown adversary had so little fear of the Widows without their hardware that they hadn't even seen a reason to kill them. As if simply depriving them of their transportation would have completely pulled their fangs.

Well, more than just their transports, Cholla had to admit in disgust. He'd thought they'd been fighting every form of communications jamming ever conceived since before they arrived, but now, suddenly, every single one of their radios and personal communicators was being blocked completely. On every frequency they were capable of transmitting or listening in on, including his supposedly almost unbreakable link to the head of Henchco. And for some reason, he couldn't help but think of Camille Leon sitting inside a Leviathan where she would have had complete access to his full com spectrum. Coupled with the destruction of their ammo dump, it added up to a far more sophisticated use of covert tactics than he would have ever expected from Senior Junior or the ragtag group of henchmen supporting him…

Assuming, of course, that Senior was the one who had actually sent Camille like a viper into their midst. There were a lot of other players in this game that Hench had started, but the memory of the toppled Lowardian Battle Tripod he'd seen while coming in narrowed his suspicion on a single pair of most likely candidates: the girl he'd come to kill and her girlfriend. After all, who else had the skills and abilities to plan and wreck such a perfect path destruction, yet would play it out in a way that left the Widows alive?

Still, the Widows DID still have some of their teeth: the assault rifles, machine pistols and grenades the troops had had on their person, and even one or two precious rocket launchers… although the loss of their supply of Stingers and the destruction of much of their ammo supply in the dump explosion had left their value considerably diminished. But as bad as that was, the deadliest blow that had been really been struck against them had been the belated discovery that, with the explosion, all of their reserve cold weather gear… everything that wasn't actually on a Widow's back at the time of the explosions… had been destroyed as well. That was bad but tolerable while the transports were functional, but without the sanctuary of the vehicles to retreat to, it was going to get damned cold as night continued to fall and the temperatures dropped into the sub zero realm…

Possibly lethally cold, in fact, Cholla realized with a chill. After all, it hadn't been the Russian armies that had stopped the invading forces of both Napolean and Hitler, it had been that unstoppable force that the Ruskies referred to as General Winter.

Which meant the Widows three best choices now were A: dig in here, build fires and resume the attack in the morning, B: make a long, slow retreat back to their own base camp for the supplies that had been left behind (and were hopefully still there) or C: proceed on foot towards Castle Senior as quickly as possible, and pray that both the weather wouldn't get any worse and that their remaining supply of arms and superior skills were sufficient to take on the entrenched forces there.

But given that only one of those three held much hope of accomplishing their mission objective, and that Cholla's own career would be over if he couldn't salvage something out of this debacle, there really wasn't a choice at all, was there?

And maybe… just maybe… he might still have one ace left in his deck. His com systems were down, but he'd had the foresight to train the Widows in a few more primitive means of communications… and there was no way he knew of to turn off the night sky.

"Frank! Elmo!" He snapped to his lieutenants, who had yet to give up on the task of trying to salvage their vehicles. "Forget salvaging the transports, just get the men ready to move out on foot with everything we can carry! And Moody! Gather the flare guns and five men, get yourself to high ground and send up two whistlers and a star cluster. Dallas is still out there with two transports and they left before the dump went off. If they're still operational, it shouldn't take them long to catch up with us once they see the call in sig."

'_And if they don't see it, or AREN'T operational,'_ Cholla added silently to himself, _'Then we're about to get bloodied like we've never been bloodied before.'_

And that was assuming that they didn't simply freeze to death.

###############################

"The… the Plutonium Card problem, sir," Monica Gruber stammered. "You mean Mr. Fyre didn't come see you? He didn't tell you about Mr. Wheeler's call?"

Hench's pulse, which had been racing ever since his link to the Black Widow commander had been suddenly cut off, slammed to a hard stop as the name Wheeler waved red flags, fired off flares and sounded air raid sirens in his skull.

'No," Hench whispered faintly. "He didn't. Perhaps you should enlighten me."

If her nervous voice before hadn't warned him of what was coming, the long delay before Moni finally answered would have telegraphed it completely.

"It's about the payment for the last two major Hench hireouts, sir," She began with a note of blatantly forced optimism. "Apparently Gemini made several charges that exceeded his credit limit… something about renting a fleet of hyper-transports… and due to the way the Plutonium Card works, whereas a PC transaction is normally only available for a period of 12 hours before the account rewrites itself and wipes the media on which it was stored and…"

"Wipes it again, I remember." Hench completed softly, paraphrasing the bank's sales pitch. "Which makes it supposedly untraceable."

"That's right," Gruber acknowledged. "Except, in this case, since the charges all occurred within the same 12 hour window and exceeded WEE's reserves, an automatic anti-fraud system engaged and chose to freeze that account completely, pending a FFB&T review...before the full amount due us was was transferred into our account. The good news is that we haven't actually lost all of that money, and we'll receive at least a partial transfer once they've had a chance to review it but… but we can't access it. Yet."

"Yet." Jack repeated in disbelief. "And that's the good news?"

"Yes sir," Gruber continued gamely on. "Because the BAD news is that Senor Senior Senior's accountant placed a stop payment on the OTHER charge completely. Apparently it was Senor Senior Jr.'s Secondary card that was actually used, which would have been fine if Senior Sr. had actually ever authorized the charge, but…"

"He didn't," Hench's voice came like the creak of a coffin lid as a single name kept repeating in his head. _Camille Leon. Camille FUCKING Leon… _

And then, almost as an afterthought: "And where in the hell is RAYMOND?"

###############################

As his sleek new 6000 SUX hit the freeway and he could let the massive 16 cylinder gas burner begin to put proper distance between himself and his former place of employment, Raymond Fyre finally let out the breath he'd been holding ever since he'd ever so quietly slipped out the Henchco security gate… ostensibly to take the package in the back seat to the Post Office, had anyone thought to ask.

Which they hadn't, of course. Guards never questioned the top execs at big firms like Henchco, so the martyred look and hastily put together story about having forgotten his wife's mother's birthday that Fyre had mentally rehearsed went unused as the guard simply waved him through. Which was a good thing, given that Raymond had never had a wife or a mother in law.

Not under THIS name, anyway.

But the exercise hadn't been completely for naught, the evil accountant mused, a sly grin crossing his face as he considered the contents of the package, the sole physical item he'd chosen to take from his office. Though wrapped in the plainest of brown paper and cardboard, it was far more special than its humble exterior would imply. For nesting inside the wrappings was a most gruesome masterpiece: the prized 22" x 22" Warhol silkscreen of an anatomically correct human heart that had decorated the wall of behind his desk for years.

Raymond's grin grew smugger as he contemplated his treasure. A perfect representation of the man he had become, it had served to do far more than just remind all who came before him that he was a man who could afford to accessorize with items that rightfully belonged in a museum. It DID do that, needless to say, but what Raymond had always most appreciated was how the frank, clinical rendering of the severed piece of anatomy had made his personal philosophy so graphically clear. That there was no room for sympathy and compassion in the world he had chosen to dwell in, and that, to succeed, the human heart could be considered to be nothing more, or less, than a simple cut of meat.

Of course, the fact that it was exactly the sort of thing that someone with excellent connections might be able to sell off quickly, should that situation present itself, was also nothing to be sneezed at. Oh, he couldn't get anywhere near it's full appraised value, given that the specifics of his own acquisition of it would have been difficult to explain… especially to the private collector from whose collection it had been stolen, but it still would fetch a tidy sum in an emergency, and Raymond Fyre was a man who had always believed in having several exit strategies available. And in taking one of those exits while there was still time in which to do so.

Fyre had begun to suspect a good while back… long before the Lowardian invasion and the recent hard times… that an extended period of employment at Henchco probably wasn't going to meet his ideal career prerequisites. Not for much longer, anyway, given that avoiding any overly lengthy stays in various houses of correction currently stood at the fairly high position of three on his list of absolute must-haves.

It wasn't just that Henchco's client base had always been… well, erratic and unreliable at best, and genocidal at worst. Raymond was an evil accountant and having to deal with that type came as basic kit and baggage with the profession. No, the worry had been that Hench's own thinking had increasingly begun to mirror that of his customers. It was one thing to disassociate yourself from some horrific atrocity that a client of the firm you worked for happened to do business with, but the closer you got to the epicenter, the harder is was for the _"I was just following orders"_ line of defense to work in front of a tribunal.

So, shortly after the Diablo fiasco, Raymond had begun sending out feelers to certain prospective employers that he felt might be a little… _friendlier_ towards his own long term goals, and given his skills, experience and, most importantly, unique access to certain facts and data, he'd been less than surprised when his first choice, the Friendly, Friendly Bank and Trust, had responded almost immediately with an offer he simply couldn't refuse.

In the strict Godfather-ian sense of the phrase.

But, again, that sort of thing came as part of the job. He'd also been quite unsurprised when it turned out that that this offer would entail remaining at Henchco for a protracted period as he took up his new duties for the FFB&T. Since that allowed him to collect double-paychecks with Hench none the wiser, Raymond was quite amenable to that plan. Especially since his current "new" duties really weren't all that much of a burden, just the occasional forgetting to double-check something that really should have been double-checked, and the forwarding of certain critical facts about Henchco's inner workings via the incredibly well hidden data storage center that he'd personally installed between the two ends of the completely ultra-secure and un-tappable wires that connected Henchco's otherwise untouchable central computer complex with the equally ultra secure payment computer of the Plutonium Card system.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, which was why Raymond Fyre was now on his way to the FFB&T's preferred plastic surgeon for a full face bob and a new identity as the Friendly, Friendly Bank and Trust's new head of creative accounting: Morris "Moe" Shooting. He'd hoped to have a little more time to pull everything together, but who could have ever expected that it would be the SENIORS' account that would prove the fatal tipping block? It could have been a complete disaster, but thanks to the quick thinking that had let him intercept the alarm Monica Gruber had been about to raise, he'd still had time to claim the greatest prize of all. Though it was a delay of only a few minutes, at best, it had been enough to insure that all of all of Henchco's most private files were now streaming to the FFB&T across the ultra-secure wires that Hench himself had paid for.

Which was what made the painting such an appropriate coda for his life at Henchco, for there was no doubt at all that Raymond Fyre had finally delivered the pound of flesh Vinnie Wheeler had hired him to procure.

And he'd cut it from exactly where it would hurt Jack Hench the most.

################################

Holding his breath, Tim fought to control the scream of triumph he felt swelling up inside his gut. Kim had told him to keep his eye out for this chance, and it was a sign of his growing maturity that he wasn't even moderately annoyed that his sister, as usual, had been right. He even had to admit that the very aspects of her personality that had made her such a shitty soccer coach now seemed much more appealing under the circumstances…

But this… this was so impossible… the chances that the random links of connections would make it possible.

And then every other thought was voided from his mind by the exultant YES that consumed him as his attack viruses did the unbelievable and a stable connection was confirmed! He did a quick double check, and then a more thorough triple check, to make sure that there hadn't been some inexplicable corruption, that it wasn't a fake, a trap or a mirage, but even as he was doing that, the data was already flowing like a torrent… exactly like a torrent, actually, several million of them.

"HIcka Bika Hoo Shaa!" He screamed, dancing a jubilant jig that was interrupted only by the intermediate flurries of keystrokes required to keep redirecting the download into a half dozen different directions to make sure that, no matter what happened, the mother lode that he'd just tapped into wouldn't be lost.

They'd hoped for just a peek, a quick glimmer of what REALLY was going on. But this…

###############################

"Oh… my… God…" Dr. Director gasped as the files began to hit her own in-box. Operation Turkey Shoot, indeed! This was going to go down as a red letter day in the history of Global Justice. Perhaps THE red letter day, and that letter was a giant glowing red H a thousand feet high.

She could barely contain her glee as not just Jack Hench's personal files, but the entire contents of every single computer in Henchco's entire system began to scroll across her screen. What GJ's hackers had been attempting for years was now being laid out on a platter. There were DATES and FINANCIAL RECORDS! There were NAMES! There were even CREDIT CARD NUMBERS!

"Helen! Seymour!" She squealed in a completely un-Director like voice as she turned to the business of setting the Possible twin's latest triumph to the use that their sister had intended. "I need everyone in Analysis called in! RIGHT NOW!"

################################

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:** Kim Possible, Shego, Wade Load, Ron Stoppable, Jack Hench, Camille Leon, Senor Senior Jr., Senor Senior Sr., Vinnie Wheeler, Dr. Betty Director, Nanny Nane, Gemini, Adrena Lynn, Dash, Crash and Burn aka Team Impossible, Tim and Jim Possible, BIg Daddy Brotherson and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. The Warhol silkscreen described is real Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _


	59. Chapter 59

_**Author's Note:** Just a WEE bit of background material here, plus an Easter gift for a certain groups of fans who've been feeling unloved until now. Hope you enjoy! **Ye Old Legal stuff at de bottom!** _

###############################

**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM**

Chapter 59

################################.

"Boys, I hate to nag but we really can't stand here all day dicking around like this," Shego snapped with perhaps justifiable irritability.

Ralph and Sam had seemed to come to an agreement of sorts, and she'd opted to take off for a quick reconnoiter while they re-explained the situation to the remainder of the Morituris… only to ripple back out of invisibility to find the entire group heatedly arguing about something. Henches! It was as if Hench specifically recruited them for indecisiveness and vacillation!

Ignoring the shocked, stunned and in some cases shit-in-their-pants faces of the rest of Sam's Morituris, who clearly hadn't been expecting the infamous Shego to literally pop out of thin air, the green woman parted the waters of the red-shirt sea and focused her fire, brimstone and attention on the two Henches she already knew.

"Look. There's a group of Black Widows just over that ridge getting antsy-pantsy, and unless Ralphie gets back to them soon, they're going to come looking to see where he went. So unless there's a major major major problem that I don't know about, you need to sign on with the program or get ready for a serious headknocking."

"There's a MAJOR major major problem you don't know about," Ralph sighed. "Show her, Sam."

Shego's eyes looked down at the object Sam was displaying.

"Aw crap."

################################.

"Aren't we there ye… ieeeeeee!" Gemini's question turned into a shrill shriek as his feet went slipping across the icy surface of a rock for… everyone else had given up counting how many times a LONG time ago, but Sheldon Director was fairly sure that it was the 47th. And for the 47th time he was caught in his stumble by his nominal number two… no, wait, he wasn't permitted to use any form of alpha-numerics until this task was done with and over, Nane had been ferociously clear on that… he was caught in his stumble by his nominal ADJUTANT, an older and more experienced Senior Hench by the name of Aidan Abbettor (Henchco # 3703,) who Nane had all but publicly announced was the units' actual operational commander "In charge of the transit operation," though what the old crone clearly meant had been _"Keeping an eye on you, Sheldon."_

"Best watch your footing there, sir," the large bear-like Henchman spoke softly as he pulled both Sheldon… and the horrifically heavy backpack on his back… back to a vertical position with a single twist of his massive arm, setting Gemini back down as lightly as down on a hummingbird's ass. "Underneath the snow is shale and ice, and slipping on THAT wouldn't be so nice."

Gemini glared at the man. Never mind that the grizzled old vet might have just saved the evil mastermind's life. And never mind that maybe it WAS a good thing that the Sasquatch-like, graying hench was "in charge" while they made their way across this hellish frozen landscape, as the big ape did seem to have the backwoods experience required to get them where they were going. And maybe Sheldon's head would have exploded like a bag of hamburger, splattering on the rocks over a half dozen times already, if Abbettor hadn't been right behind him, carefully dogging his tracks as though Gemini wasn't capable of walking without killing himself…. which maybe he wasn't under this very particular nightmarish situation.

Because none of that… NONE of that… changed the fact that the man had just quoted a PIXIE SCOUT rule at him, and Sheldon had loathed those loathsome little creatures ever since his sister had used Pixie Scout Camp as an excuse to abandon Sheldon years before. And for that Abbettor was going to have to die!

But not until AFTER they'd got Possible, and Gemini had figured out how to rid himself of Nane, of course. First things first. He could wait just a little longer.

Because, as it happened, patience was the one, only and singular virtue that Gemini was on familiar terms with. He'd had to be, given that he wasn't a complete idiot, no matter what his high school guidance counselor had written on his evaluation sheet. No, he was just extraordinarily screwed up in a wrong slot, wrong thread, wrong gauge manner that made those stupid little nut and bolt sculptures look like warm and rational human beings in comparison. And he knew the only way to take out Nane was to catch her unawares, preferably napping, and then use enough ordinance to take out a small city block. That took bodies. Lots of bodies. Expendable bodies. And he was well aware that Nane had taken the cream of the crop for herself, which meant that he couldn't waste the more competent ones he had on quick knee-jerk gratifications.

Plus, Abbettors' fellow henches clearly liked the big man better. They might get a bit upset if Gemini pushed him off a cliff. Or at least suspicious.

So, if that meant letting what precious few bits of his reputation and dignity he still possessed slowly shrivel up in the same way his WEE willie winkie would if he dared to attempt to relieve his aching bladder in the sub-arctic weather, so be it. Even if he HAD been desperately longing to wee for over half a mile, he was just going to hold it in. Because THAT would have made HIM the one holding up his unit the most, and Sheldon would rather suffer a burst urethra than cause another delay.

Not with Nane tracking their every move.

############################################.

Despite the absurdly short time Global Rescue had been given to set up the whole of Turkey Shoot, the distraction with Ron and Yori had at least given them the opportunity to triple stock the vehicles with every redundancy they could think of. That was something Kim was incredibly grateful for as she finished replenishing her supplies from the Hovercraft's jump kit. The HALO jump had been meant a quick insertion, so they'd been traveling light.

This time she was loading for bear. Or maybe Tyrannosaur.

Cyn was just handing her a third grappler when Shego popped up in front of her, the projector in the helmet beside her rendering a two foot high version of her lover with an un cannily remarkable similarity to a certain scene from a certain science fiction film. But such were the perils of letting kids who should still be in Junior High design your mission gear.

"What's the sitch?" She greeted her girlfriend, "And please don't say I'm your only hope."

"Problem, Kim," Shego scowled. "Or actually two, but first up, is THIS."

Shego's cam refocused to show an unknown henchman standing next to Ralph, one leg of his hench suit pulled up to reveal a thing silver band just above his ankle.

"Tracking bracelets?" Will's image jumped into a corner of the screen to state the obvious.

"Molecularly continuous tracking bracelets, " Wade corrected from his own panel, squinting at the readings from Shego's Shegophone. There's no lock or buckle, just a series of long chain molecules that extend around the circumference of the entire thing. The only way to take it off is to have the device that put it on."

"Which I'm assuming you don't have," Kim nodded back at Shego. "Or you wouldn't be calling the brain trust."

"No, we think Nane has it on her," Shego growled. "But that's not the worst of it. I'm pretty sure that the things are wired to blow via remote, but even if they aren't the ones wrapped around the bombs in the Henches' backpacks will handle the trick. Wade, I need you to double check my scans, but to cap it all off, I think the bombs and henches are tied with…"

"Proximity rings!" Wade finished. "So the Henches can only go so far away from the twins in their packs…"

"Before their rings blow," Kim shuddered. "Taking them and who ever's in the vicinity with them."

"Instant suicide bomber." Shego confirmed. "Or a hell of a way to make your kid remember his book bag. Doc got offered a contract to make something like this for Henchco years ago and turned it down. It looks like some mad scientists will make anything for anybody, though, because these could be Henchco issue."

"Which DOES invalidate Gemini's Henchco contract," Ralph added. "Which would be a hell of an argument for Sam's guys to swap sides… if it wasn't for the fact that Nane's tracking them, and if they don't follow the course and schedule she set…"

"We find out why we got the code name Morituri," the one who was presumably "Sam" grumbled bleakly.

"And the other teams are named Kamikaze and Omega," Shego added. "You want to bet that they're not ALL wired to blow?"

"No. That may have been Nane's plan all along," Kim grimaced, trying not to imagine the carnage few dozen exploding henches could cause in the right situation. Not to mention the completely unpredictable chaos. "Okay, normally I'd say this sounds like a Wade and the Wonder Twins job but… Betty… think there's any chance we might find something on those in the Hencho files?"

A harried looking Dr. Director belatedly appeared, her jumpsuit unzipped to the navel and an unfamiliar pair of reading glasses perched on her nose in front of the eyepatch. Kim was vaguely amused that the one lens wasn't black as well, but apparently the head of Global Justice bought her readers pre-made at SmartyMart. She'd also, at some point, apparently stuck a pen in her hair for safekeeping and then forgotten about it, as it was sticking out of the back of her head like an antenna.

"Uh… it's possible, Kim," the head of Global Justice admitted. "But we're slammed here. Do you have any idea how much data we're going through? Everything we find is like fighting a hydra, but in a good way. Each new lead we find sprouts a dozen new heads and then they sprout new heads and…"

"I got it," Kim cut the analogy short. "So the answer is: don't count on it. Never mind, I've got another idea but what can we do to help you guys along?"

Betty blinked. Trust Kim, in the middle of a life of death fight of her own, to be offering assistance. "Uh… well, to be honest, I don't know what you can do. It's a manpower situation. If there's one thing that Helen's taught me, it's that AI's don't have the capacity to think as crookedly as humans can, and we've got every analyst we have with the necessary clearance already on the case. And from what we've already found, we can't ask any other agencies to pitch in because they may already be compromised… Hell, you won't believe what the GSA bought from Henchco last fall. I've even run a few things past Senor Senor Senior, but given that he's still technically a supervillain, the data has to be so sanitized that it's hardly worth the trouble."

"Okay," Kim processed the information. "So what you need is people with the ability to see patterns and manipulate numbers, some knowledge of the supervillain underworld, have the required top-top clearance for something of this scale and who aren't in the current national security nets?"

"Right." Director sighed. "Impossible, huh?"

"No," Kim shook her head. "Nana Possible. You remember my grandmother, don't you?"

"Do I?" Betty did a double take. "She's the one who first recruited me."

"From Pixie Scouts, in the Okelydokely Swamp, right," the younger redhead nodded. "She couldn't wait to tell me that story once she found out we were in bed together."

"Ahem."

"Figuratively, Dragon-chan." Kim clarified, mollifying the ruffled Shego before turning back to Betty. "And I can't wait to get your half of the story, as it brought up some interesting questions… but to get back to business, it so happens that Nana and a large group of her old friends from her days in the 'business' are all currently shacked up at the Webetchalosum- Greenbucks Native American Casino and Spa in Inowat, Utah. That's at least 50 of the most devious minds on the planet, all with Uber-Top security clearance and completely out of the current loop. And as it happens, we could have a completely secure remote analysis post set up there in about an hour."

"We can?" Wade, Will and Betty asked simultaneously.

"Yep, I happen to know one of the Casino's owner's intimately," Kim grinned. "Isn't that right, Greenbucks, dear?"

"Yeah, me big shareholder," Shego admitted. "As well as an honorary Webetcha. It's going to play hell with the Bingo tournament though."

"Right," Kim continued. "Also, get Ron's Dad to work crunching numbers on my personal system… he's had top clearance ever since his son became a weapon of mass destruction and then… call MY dad. Ask him to hook you up with Dr. Freemen and ask HIM to fix you up with SADIE. If there's an AI on the planet that understands twisty thinking, it's that car. Heck, get him to put the Toaster and the Refrigerator on it as well."

"Gotcha," Dr. Director nodded, scrawling down all the information on the palm of her hand with a red marker. "Thanks Kim, I didn't even think about calling in former agents, but now that you've put the idea in my brain, I bet I can follow through with a few hundred more of my own retirees and still keep everything under our hats."

"No big. But if you'll hang on just a second more, I'll need your help to set something up."

"Uh huh…" Betty replied, looking away from the camera as a report was being wangled at her provocatively. "You're kidding! THAT'S what that Kardashian wedding was really about?"

"Okay, you gave me the first problem," Kim exhaled deeply as she turned her attention back to Shego. "What's the second?"

"The fact that you look like ass, Princess," the dragon snorted.

"You normally like…"

"Do NOT go there on an open com channel. And I'm not referring to the bruises and cuts, I'm talking about your waxy pallor."

"Er…" Kim looked away evasively. Too bad Shego knew how to remote-control the projector so that within a second 'she' was back in Kim's face.

"Don't even try to deny it, Princess. You've been running on reserves and pain meds. And I know you have to do whatever crazy-fool thing you're about to do, but while you're restocking your gear, we're going to restock you too. By the executive order of your co-commander, per section 12 c, paragraph nine, you WILL get some food and fluids in your fool gut before you take off trying to kill your fool self again, got it?"

"But…" Kim began "Shego, there isn't time!"

"Nuh nuh nuh nope!" the fire-breathing girlfriend smoldered. "You will MAKE time for your pie hole, pumpkin. Cyn, Gay, there are granola bars, fruit, cereal and Tang in bin 3-C, and Miss Possy-pants isn't getting out of that hover until she's eaten something. Or, and I'm serious Kim, there's something else you won't be eating for a few weeks."

The other two women in the hovercraft, who'd been quiet for the entire conversation, finally gave in to a bad case of the snickers… not the candybars, which were in bin 12-G… and were quickly joined by Stevens.

"Fine!" Kim gave in, her face flushed red. "Okay, you're right. I know you're right. But I don't want to hear you squawking when I want you to do something that's good for you, even when you don't want it."

"Just eat your cereal and be a good girl, Princess," Shego shot back. "I'm already going to have to explain to the Casino why the Bingo Tournaments going to have to be delayed, and THEN figure out what to do about those Black Widows. What could you possibly add to that?"

Sixteen seconds later, she knew. And all she could say was…

"Aw crap!"

############################################.

Crap was exactly the opposite of what Gemini had on his mind. His issue was pee.

And that it wasn't fair. It wasn't like it HIS fault that he had been too busy organizing the roll out to have heard Abettor order everyone else to go before they left the first time? And was it HIS fault that the coffee he'd drunk to ward off the cold seemed to be flushing unnaturally fast through his system? But as he looked back at the ragged group of slovenly henches chuffing behind him, he forced himself to hold it in.

He could hold it. He knew he could. As long as they got to their objective soon. Not that he had any idea how long that would actually be.

Gemini's bladder was now approximately the size of the SmartyMart (formerly Chrysler) building. Every movement was an agonizing pain. A lancing, stabbing sensation that arced from inside the very tip of his shivering member to the very back of his groin. And the pain of holding it in wasn't even the worst part. Because the timing and the entire situation seemed to have been designed to take advantage of one of Sheldon's most intense and personal phobias, and he was beginning to suspect that that a certain iron bitch might just have doctored his coffee in order to watch him squirm.

And every step brought back memories he'd fought to repress; buried nightmares that made his already convoluted innards start to twist and writhe like a tapeworm on acid being dropped in formaldehyde. Visions of the terrifying, traumatizing toilet training that he'd received at the gnarled and nasty knotty hands of his then Nanny, Nane; who rather than pampering the now director of WEE through his juvenile 'issues,' as any normal nanny no doubt would have, had instead concocted the devil-spawned de-diapering program that had ultimately sent Sheldon running bare-assed and naked down the crooked and wiggly path through the fetid sewers of insanity and into the bowels of the mountains of madness.

His breath wheezed as his legs pumped him forward, spurt by spurt, fluid motion followed by sudden jerks. More rocks ahead. Going uphill. He could do it. He could.

To this day, the merest thought of that preschool program of physical humiliation, punishment and suppositories caused him to break out in rashes in varies sordid and unmentionable spots, and it was that same potty training gone so psychotically wrong that had left him permanently hobbled with both a passionate hatred for his sister… who'd ace'd her own bedwetting problem in a matter of days once she'd figured out the lay of the plastic coated sheets… and a pathological inability to perceive anyone who was more than a few years his senior as anything except a possibly mortal enemy.

In short, that was pretty much the moment when everything had gone to shit and Sheldon's future went straight into the crapper. It was why the budding madman had done so poorly in school, filled as it was with older authority figures with strange fixations on 'bathroom passes" and who he was sure were somehow slipping subliminal messages into his homework. And that, in turn, had been a major contributing factor in his decision to go into the evil business, being that it was one of the few professions where simple brilliance and ambition could get you ahead without bothersome requirements like diplomas or annual medical exams. Oh, he could have gone into law enforcement like his goody-two shoes sibling, but there'd been that little detail of drug testing to get around… specifically having to piss in a jar for some ancient nurse or doctor.

No. It had been far more expedient to simply clonk a Driver's License Examiner on the back of the head while he was preparing for a test, steal the man's job and identity and then take over the entire DMV within a matter of months. It had been truly amazing how much money some people were willing to pay someone in order to keep their license, and there had been a point where there were people from all but 3 states carrying IDs issued by "Noah Parkin."

That whole exercise had proven to be a valuable lesson in both how easy it was to play the system and how ridiculously simple it was to get someone to stand on a trap door that lead to their doom. ("No, just step back one more step Ma'am, I need more of you in the picture.") An astonishingly large number of little old ladies who bore a vague resemblance to Nane, as well as some effeminate little old men, had all taken that sudden drop to his great glee… right after they'd conveniently given him all the information necessary for him to transfer the delivery of their social security checks to Gramma Wray's Hot Flash Acres, the mostly fictitious Seniors Retirement Community he'd established in the middle of the Nevada testing range. There WERE some, surprisingly sturdy buildings (or perhaps not so surprisingly, given that they had survived their original purpose,) and most importantly, a lead lined mail box.

Not only had he ended up putting away enough capital to jump start WEE in just a few years, he'd also cultivated the habit of thinking of people in terms of numbers. Drivers license numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers. Why bother to learn names when you could assign a ticket number? And when that person was no more, why, you could use the number again! Wonderful!

And even as his love for numbers exploded, his hatred for his elders crystallized into a tiny black ball at the center of his shriveled soul. Because unlike normal adults, who just wanted to get into the DMV, do what they had to do done and get the hell out before their lunch hour was over, senior citizens had all the time in the world. They drank all the coffee. They lounged around in the waiting area reading the magazines. They talked. They chatted. And when the were done yabber yabber yabering at each other with their flaccid, floppy, unsecurely dentured jowls, they'd track down the employees and ask questions. Questions about why this form was done this way and that form was done that way and why the DMV needed that information anyway? As if they didn't trust him to know what he was doing. Putting aside the minor point that Sheldon actually hadn't been trained for the job he'd started with and that he HAD been killing a large number of them for his own personal gain, he still found that provocative questioning of HIS authority aggravating beyond reason. As if, simply by the fact of being old, they somehow deserved HIS deference and respect!

And all of that was as nothing compared to the most infuriating thing of all:

They occupied the restrooms for hours. What were they doing in there? Counting the hemorrhoids on their pale, pasty buttocks? Drooling in the sink as they played ventriloquist games with their dentures? Or, most likely, laying some kind of devious trap by unrolling and then re-rolling all the toilet paper? All Sheldon knew was that he COULDN'T go in there after one of those… seniors… had been in there. There were days he couldn't even walk down the same hallway. Not after what SHE had done to him, in a tile-lined torture chamber of horrors, forever associating porcelain, pain, pensioners and piddling irrevocably in his mind.

Which was why, once he'd got WEE up and running, he'd always made it a policy to get the youngest, least experienced Henches he could, with an absolute ban on anyone over the half-century mark. Which had been rather convenient, since that was the only "product" that Henchco would normally loan out to customers with "abnormally high shrinkage rates" like Gemini anyway. In truth, the only reason someone like Abbettor had drawn the WEE card now was that the henching business was in a bad slump… having seen what the Lowardians were capable of, and how quickly they'd been trounced, a lot of would be villains had decided the bar was set way too high… while Abettor himself had been pulled back into henching after several years retirement when the modest house he'd shared with his daughter and grandchildren had been squashed flat twice, first by Diablos and then by Tripods. With the outside insurance coverage of any kind available to a hench being either outrageously expensive of simply non-existent, and many of the insurance companies still playing the "Act of God" card on one or both disasters, the big man's only hope of financial salvation had been to come back to Henching… at half his previous salary and the loss of all seniority on the firing line.

All of which Sheldon knew because he'd had more than a few words with Hench's people once he'd seen some of the older men coming off the transport. However, the Stocking Agent had very carefully explained it to him in small words that he understood, and he could see the value in getting a better trained employee for the same dollar. Everyone benefited… well, except for the Henches… and Sheldon had realized that he'd really gone into the wrong business if he wanted to be truly evil. World Conquest was an iffy proposition at best, but no matter what happened, the Henchcos, the All-Farms and Friendly and the Friendly Bank & Trusts always found a way to profit… just barely on the safe side of the very greyest areas of the law.

And with that thought, a couple of pieces of information that Gemini had wondered about in his saner moments suddenly crystallized with diamond-like clarity in his otherwise dark and musty coal mine of a mind. Specifically, why Hench had always been willing to send Henches to WEE, knowing what the level of attrition would be like. Although he'd never quite pieced it together until just this instant, it was suddenly instantly apparent to Sheldon that the existence of WEE must have suited Henchco's own machinations to a T.

Training was expensive, after all, and it made sense not to send WEE anyone except the very newest of Hench-recruits, the greenest of the green, Sheldon had always understood the logic of that. But what he hadn't really though about was how that let Henchco test out the raw skills of each group of rookies before wasted too much money on education on those with the lowest level of survival skills. And if Sheldon's preferred operational procedure for dismissal left the survivors a little more pliable and easy to control after a few strategic deaths… well, that had obvious benefits for Hench's long term cash flow outlook as well.

And what if the goal had also been to weed out those with a bit TOO much personal initiative? The ones that Gemini inevitably chose as his Alphas and Betas?

Because the market for the tools to take over the world was bound to suffer a strong slump if someone ever actually managed to achieve it, and a too competent core of Henchmen might accidentally make that possible. Look at what that ridiculous Drakken had been able to achieve, for example, by going outside the Henchco system and hiring Shego. And that was just one… though admittedly supremely capable… competent assistant. So, by eliminating both ends of the bell curve with the same megalomaniac's itchy trigger finger, Gemini had been helping keep Hench's profits up by performing an essential service for free! Worse, he'd been PAYING Hench while doing it!

"Why, that son of a…"

####################################.

"Bitch!" Shego swore, as the rippling form began to appear before her and the assembled henches. There were times when she wondered if Kim Possible was really, secretly, the greatest evil genius on the planet, and that all of the world saving stuff was just for show.

This was one of those times when she was absolutely sure.

Kim had had a solution for the tracking bracelets alright. It just wasn't one that Shego wanted anything to do with. But here she was, and there…

The rippling shimmer, fed by a half dozen different classified, ultra secure data cables from the far side of the planet, solidified into a solid hologram of a man wearing a outlandishly garish Hawaiian shirt, dark sunglasses and a red speedo that perfectly matched the equally red rubber Gator thong-sandals that he wore on his…

Blue legs.

"Honestly, Shego," the live holo of Dr. Drakken looked at her in exasperation. "What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into that I have to interrupt MY vacation to bail you out?"

####################################.

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:** Kim Possible, Shego, Will Du, Wade Load, Doctor Betty Director, Nanny Nane, Gemini/Sheldon DIrector, Nana Possible, Senor Senior Senior, Ron Stoppable, Mr. Stoppable, Jack Hench, Dr. James Possible, SADIE, The Toaster, The Refrigerator, Dr. Freeman, Jim and Tim Possible, Dr. Drakken and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Original characters Aiden Abbetor, Sam Jackson (no relation), Ralph Emerson Shepherd, Jose Mendoza, Stevens and the luscious Cyn Rushing may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _


	60. Chapter 60

Author's Note: Can it be a new chapter? Yes indeed! And as the first since AT THE CENTERFOLD added an unbelievable (I certainly still can't believe it) Six 2011 Fannie Awards to the Two it won for 2010, let me humbly state that I am completely blown away by the support you've continued to give to this odd little fantasy of mine. Due to a pile of real-world work and a freak lightning storm, I'm running way behind where I want to be, but we really are in the final stretch now. The next chapter is already 30% written and there's another chapter of THE PRINCESS DIARIES (this year's co-winner of the Fannie for Best Kigo Story!) that's taking shape at the moment as well. From that point it's going to be a steady stream of ATCOTS interspersed with alternating episodes of PRINCESS DIARIES and THE BACK UP PLAN (winner of the 2011 Fannie for best crossover/fusion) until we're done with this story… which will be in Chapter 66! No, seriously, everything is really now in place for the final Götterdämmerung! Just a little final fleshing out and some secondary character love for those who've been asking, and this thing is going to roll. Oh, and for those who hate story and prefer lots of legalese and disclaimers (I'm talking to you, entertainment industry lawyers,) look no further than **Ye Old Legal stuff at de bottom!**

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**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM**

**Chapter 60**

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A soft, startled gasp escaped Bonnie's lips as the fading beams of the truck's dim headlights suddenly glinted off the wreckage of a familiar forklift tractor at the side of the road just ahead. She'd known it was likely that she'd see it, had anticipated it ever since their small convoy had rolled out of the woods and onto the icy route that Junior's men always took to the glacier, but since she and Ralph had taken to the woods a few hundred feet up the road, she'd really had no way of knowing exactly where she was until just this second.

The battered yellow vehicle that had been her unlikely chariot to freedom lay on its side, canted oddly at a strange angle in the ditch that had ultimately stopped it. It hadn't lasted long after they'd set it loose on its doomed decoy mission and the twisted tines of its pallet loader were now crumpled flat, backwards, against the ruin of its hydraulic jack columns. Despite the frigid cold, small dollops of some red viscous fluid was still dripping from several of the many bullet holes that riddled the cab of the tiny tractor, while nearby the shattered remains of the crate that Ralph had somehow secured to the vehicle lay in dozens of splintered pieces, the bits of arctic survival gear that they'd had to abandon in their haste to escape lying strewn across the snow like the victims in the wake of an avalanche. All told, it was a rather grim reminder of exactly what she was riding back into.

No, not back into, Bonnie mentally corrected herself. For though she had been here before, only a matter of hours earlier, it seemed like an entire lifetime had elapsed since she'd last past this way, and at that time her fate had been utterly dependent upon the skills of the defecting Henchman who'd been her unexpected Guardian Angel. Now, this time, she was here of her own will… still dependent on others, yes, but firmly in control of her own destiny for the first time in like…

Well, like forever, really.

And if Junior had thought she'd been a bitch on wheels back when she'd been his willing, lobotomized fuck-toy, she mused as a low growl built in the back of her throat, boy was he going to hate the new, improved Bonnie Rockwaller.

"Is something wrong, Camille-san?" 'Kim' whispered into Bonnie's ear as a hand that she couldn't see wrapped about her own, a sensation that sent shivers running up her spine even as the synthetic Camille projection flawlessly duplicated the goosebumps that were popping up across her flesh. These holographic disguises that Ron had given them were incredibly believable to the eyes, especially since the latest update from the real redhead had included an only minutes old scan that included all of the real cuts and bruises the teen hero had picked up in the course of the day, but that only made the disconnect between the visuals perceived and the tactile sensations felt all the more jarring. It was bad enough when she was sitting and her limbs were in roughly the same place, but when she walked her Camille arms seemed to float a few inches above where she knew they actually were, and her actual point of view was so much closer to Camille's boobs than her own that it was as if her head had been bonked through her neck like a cartoon character hit by a mallet. Yet, none of that was as unsettling as when she could clearly 'see' Kim's arms bound to her sides even as a phantom appendage was stroking an equally foreign version of her own hand in an entirely different place.

So much for any use of this thing for kinky sex tricks… Then again, Ron had said the effect was quite different when you were at the actual center of the effect rather than having the effect projected out and over you. But even if that was true, and even knowing who it was beneath the holographic mask, it still was all just too weird and freaky for her. Or maybe it was just that, after having had own her identity stripped out and someone else's looks and thoughts imprinted against her will, her subconscious was never going to be comfortable with anything that concealed her true self again.

"Kim wouldn't call Camille 'san,'" Bonnie evaded, wondering if her growl had come out of her Camille disguise in an as eerily perfect a duplication of the villain's voice as Kim's vocal tones were reproduced as they issued from her companion in the center seat. "But we're almost back to the Castle, so we need to get your gag in place."

"Spanking!" 'Kim' replied, her eyes twinkling in amusement as she got into character and slid down onto the floor where she'd be 'tied' for the rest of the trip. "It shall be my honor to be your prisoner... you shape-changing, psycho bitcmmmmmmmp!"

"That's enough out of you, Possible," Bonnie snapped, dropping into her own characterization as she clamped her hand over the surprised teenage face, resisting the urge to shudder as her fingers again felt the unreal sensation of touching the invisible phantom flesh beneath the surface of the Kim projection as she strapped the velcro-backed gag over what was actually the person beneath's nose... a precaution they were taking so that there'd be a real piece of cloth at hand just in case someone wanted Kim's gag removed. Just another of the myriad tricks someone had thought of to help make the illusion they were trying sell just a little more buyable.

"Just remember," Ron added from the opposite side of the truck's cab, his own voice also electronically altered, although in his case the augmentation was simply his actual baritone that had been pitched down to a more intimidating bass. "You're supposed to be Camille and she's got a longer stride, so if you have to walk in snow or mud, take big steps or the hologram program will try to make your image's footsteps match the real footprints you're leaving…"

"Which could be a dead giveaway," Bonnie nodded, even though they'd been over this a dozen times already. She could hardly take issue with her former classmate's repetitiveness in drilling the basics into her, after all, given that the warnings were intended to help keep one B. Rockwaller's shapely but badly bruised and scuffed ass firmly on this side of the Pearly Gates. His painstaking attention to detail had even gone so far as insisting that all of them attempt to learn to perform impressions of their alter-ego's voices _sans enhancement_, just in case his overtaxed RonCom… which was handling disguise chores for the entire group… had to default to it's primary purpose, which was making 'Kim' look like Kim despite the bulky body armor that covered the stand-in's body… just in case someone remembered that, as far as the bounty was concerned, a dead Kim was as just as good as a live Kim. Bonnie's own disguise as Camille got second priority for the simple reason that she was taking the place of a shape shifter. There wasn't much logic as to why Camille would suddenly change to Bonnie, but there was no arguing that she certainly could.

And actually, Bonnie had to admit that her own impression of Camille wasn't too bad, although the outfit she was wearing under the holo bore only a barest resemblance to the one the villain had been garbed in prior to her involuntary but incredible accurate full body scan (yes, Bonnie had checked and had been surprised to find out that Camille had a few piercings in some very unexpected places.) And Ron's Henchman impression, while far from exact, was at least different enough from his normal pitch that no one was likely to give him a second thought as long as the henchco-issue mask and heavy weather scarf he was wearing continued to obscure his upper features. Their 'Kim,' on the other hand, would never pass even the most cursory appraisal, which was the reason the real Kim had intended to take the part of herself before she'd been distracted tracking down Bonnie's most recent former captors.

Ironically, considering the last few weeks of her life and Junior's apparent intent, there's been some very brief discussion of Bonnnie taking the part of Kim herself. However, while the teen hero and Bonnie were far closer in shape and size, there was general consensus that Bonnie's greater familiarity with the castle and grounds might make the difference in carrying off the deception of being Camille long enough to make the whole plan work.

So the plan now was that 'Kim,' apparently bound and gagged, would remain in the truck if that was at all possible, while Ron's assignment was to carry her, if required, and to otherwise keep himself somehow between Kim and "Camille" at all time so that his Ron-com could shoulder the disguise chores for both of them simultaneously. As a result, with Ron already multitasking and 'Kim' tied up, it would be primarily up to Bonnie to handle the tactical objectives and somehow convince Junior to come out and play… or, if it came down to it, to lead the team inside after him.

Which meant that, after all these years, Bonnie Rockwaller was finally in the position where she'd always thought that she deserved to be all along: taking the lead while Kim Possible… well, a Kim Possible… played the part of the hapless onlooker.

Funny how it didn't feel in any way like she'd thought it would, now that she knew what the real cost of being a hero could be. That one stupid move on her part could get a lot of people killed.

"Don't worry," the Henchman with Ron's nose and chin grinned, as if he could read the thoughts on her pale drawn face underneath the cloaking layer of Camille. "With any luck, this is all going to go like clockwork…"

"And if it doesn't and we get MY usual luck instead?" Bonnie/Camille countered with a caustic grimace.

"We wing it, just like we always do," the former nerd turned mascot turned running back turned ninja turned world-saving hero winked. "How do you think I learned how to run so fast?"

"But seriously," Ron continued after his lighthearted remark failed to raise as much of a smile as he seemed to deem acceptable. "The trick is to never forget you're not alone, and even when you're out of ideas, you've got partners to pull you back out of the fire. Just keep moving, go with the flow and even when your pants are around your ankles and the mutant monkeys are attacking, you'll be okay. Okay?"

Thinking back on how many people had recently put themselves on the line to save her own sorry ass, Bonnie slowly nodded, the strange relationship that Kim and Ron had always shared finally making perfect sense.

"Yes, it is no big," the Kim on the floorboards between them chimed in clearly, despite the apparent gag in her mouth. "It is, how do you say, a sitch."

"Cinch," Camille and the henchman corrected in unison, as beneath the false gag, their most unlikely stand in for Kim smiled to himself.

'_Yes,'_ mused Hirotaka, this was EXACTLY what he had always imagined that being on a mission with the former Team Possible would be like and, once again, he was forced to admit that that already high bar of estimation he had for his American friends had just escalated another notch. For while a careful and well thought out plan was important to any endeavor… and Possible-san's plan was quite good, especially given the scant data and limited time she'd had in which to craft it… it was even more crucial to understand that no plan survived first contact with the enemy completely intact, and to have both the willingness and ability to improvise at a moments notice, with complete faith in your teammates, was a truly priceless gem of knowledge. That had always been one of the fundamental tenets of the Yamanouchi school, and for Possible and Stoppable to have so effortlessly grasped that concept at such a young age was simply more proof that Ron-san's choice as the wielder of the Lotus Blade had been no quirk of fate.

Which was a good thing, as it was Hirotaka's honor to have been tasked with the duty of observing and reporting on the development of his gaijin friend's skills and abilities to Yamanouchi's secretive council of elders. It made it much easier for Hirotaka to join in consensus with his Sensei's recent and quite unprecedented decision to break with centuries of long standing tradition, one that not even Yori was aware of. But soon, it would be Hirotaka's great pleasure to inform his friend and classmate that she… and Ron-san… were to be entrusted with the task of founding the first Yamanouchi school ever to be erected outside of the borders of Japan. As radical as the notion had first seemed, Hirotaka was now in full agreement that the path Sensei's foresight and vision had charted was truly the most logical and practical. For while Yamanouchi had managed to keep it's many eyes and ears on the pulse of the world through the eras of steamships and planes, now that it had become known that there was intelligent life beyond our planet, it was inevitable the city of Middleton and its rebuilt space center would soon become the hub upon which the future of civilization would turn.

In fact, now that Hirotaka thought about it, perhaps it would be wise to investigate the possibility of persuading Sensei to grant yet another life time transfer? He would have to think upon a delicate way of asking that question of his distinguished teacher and friend…

Assuming that Hirotaka and his current companions survived the night, of course. For while there was no doubt in his mind that the team Possible-san had assembled was vastly more capable than any of the opponents they still faced, even as outnumbered as they still were, as a ninja he understood all too well how the fog of war could turn the tables on even the most experienced warriors. And with as many forces in movement and pieces in play as remained in this game, there were still far too many opportunities ahead where a single stroke of dumb luck could change the tide of battle either way.

After all, as his instructors had most diligently drilled into his head during his years as a student, even a complete and utter idiot could make exactly the right decision, even if each and every one of their reasons for making that decision proved to be completely wrong.

################################

"WHAT?" Shego screeched like a ruffled green parrot as all the Henches except for the now VERY white looking Sam automatically backed up a dozen paces. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"

"Look, all I meant to was…" the clueless and not so buff surfer-dude sporting the turquoise equivalent of a tan began to retort, only to drop off in mid sentence as his runaway brain leapt a track and collided with a new train of thought. "Say, have you gained weight?"

"No, I HAVE NOT gained weight!" The fiery former villainess flamed back, masticating her words through gnashed, grinding teeth while little puffs of green steam literally began to poof out of her ears. "And what kind of a thing is that to say to someone you haven't seen or spoken to in a year?"

"Hmm…" The projection of Drakken squinted, blithely oblivious to the dangerously high levels of pulsating plasma buildup that were being radiated from the fiery femme fatale. "Maybe I have the magnification on the transmitter a little off. You look taller than normal too… Oh, wait, I know what it is… you're not slumping anymore."

"I did NOT used to SLUMP!"

"Um… no, begging your pardon, but as the sisters say, you looked like you were doing the Detroit lean without an automobile," the Drakster plowed on, holding up a waggling "speak to the hand"sign. "And if you want concrete scientific proof, I'm sure I can take a mold off the old furniture and provide a 3D reconstruction. Or don't you remember how the way you used to slouch into the Languid-Boy recliner and read magazines for hours on end left a permanently Shego-shaped impression in the leatherette? Probably from the all the times you would get too worked up and have your accidental emissions."

"Accidental emmiss…?" Shego stammered. "You mean the times I intentionally tried to fry your ass? And are you seriously saying you KEPT that skanky armchair?"

"Oh come on Shego," came the response in concert with a pair of eyes rolled to the zenith of their orbits. "We both know that if you had ever really wanted to fry my ass, you could have done so. But you weren't going to, if for no other reason than I was your vehicle to your little tete a tetes with Possible."

"Tete a…?" Shego blinked, a look of horrified disbelief suddenly consuming her face. "Oh no, don't you dare pretend that you knew…"

"About the photo album you kept of your little to-dos? Or how you slathered on the perfume and makeup every time you thought a red headed encounter was imminently Possible? " the phantom in the Hawaiian shirt clucked, waving away an imaginary cloud of _eau de Shego_. "I was wondering when one or the other of you would finally come clean about that, by the way, so congratulations. And of course I kept the chair. Do you know how much fireproofed upholstery costs? I had to hang onto it in case you ever decided to come out of your snit and work for me again."

"Come out of my…?" Shego repeated, beginning to feel as though she was trapped in a broken record. "You're the one who left ME, remember?"

"Er, no." Drakken frowned. "I distinctly remember leaving a postee-note for you on the table. Gone to G.J. Pack your bags… Hmm, you know, in retrospect I think I may have stopped to go look up the address and might not have actually finished it… That would be an 'oops' on my part, but you certainly could have called me."

"You also changed ALL of your phone numbers, emails and your Facadebook page." Shego snarled. "And I was the ONLY friend you had on that account!"

"Er…" Drakken flushed a strange shade of teal. "Well... you know how I get distracted and Global Justice was really good about getting me everything I needed and they've got some silly rules about supervillains having access to their old e-mail, so they had to rebuild my "on-line" personality from the ground up and their phone service is bundled with the internet and cable. And I'd kind of gotten the idea that you were mad at me for going straight after steering you to the Dark Side, not to mention taking away your excuse for rolling around with that…"

"That woman that I love?" Shego gesticulated threateningly with a flamingly iridescent index finger.

"…wonderful young woman who I hope you'll be very happy with," Drakken concluded without missing a beat. "Now will you PLEASE stop shaking that thing, Shego? You may see me as a holographic projection there, but MY eyes are effectively in that gizmoid and the image stabilization on this Global Justice mainframe is barely handling it! At high magnification everything's shaking like it's made of jelly! If you would just…"

"The reason it's shaking is because HE'S shaking!" Shego riposted. "Not that I blame him given that it's YOU poking about and if that Drop-Kick-Me Jesus thing goes off, you'll be the only one who survives! And it's a SHEGOfone, not a gizmoid!"

"Um… could we have a little less confrontation and a little more working on the problem?" Sam sweated nervously, buckets of perspiration re-soaking his just dried Hench uniform despite the rapidly dropping temperature. "I'm kind of attached to this leg and would really like to keep it that way."

Shego facepalmed herself in barely restrained frustration. It just wasn't fair! She'd spent so much time thinking of exactly what she'd say if she ever ran into the blue buffoon again, had worked up such a beautiful an eloquent rant and now she couldn't say ANY of it because maybe it had been a misunderstanding and, in any case, people's lives were depending upon her being NICE.

"Then maybe I should give you the phone," Shego sighed, swallowing a mental "I'm a good girl" pill and starting to plop the device in the Hench's hand… before freezing with a sudden thought and snatching it back. "No, wait, I may need this thing. Some other shoe we've forgotten about is going to bite us in the ass, so I've got to do something about that group of Black Widows over the hill before they decide to come and see what's going on over here."

"Not if we can get this done quickly enough," Ralph butted in, having been knocked out of his fascinated observation of how quickly Drakken and Shego had dropped back into their old behavioral patterns by the sudden reminder of his recent comrades. At the same time, there was no way he was going to let Shego run off and leave him stuck with the reins of command. He'd become a hench because he didn't like having to make difficult decisions and he'd had more than enough of that for the day to last him a lifetime. "The faster this gets done, the faster we ALL can do something about those guys."

"Do I know you?" Drakken's image turned and blinked myopically as he peered up at the former hench. "I can't place the face but the voice is familiar…"

"Er… I've been around," Ralph fudged. No way was he mentioning that he was the one who'd fallen on Drakken's head when Underwater Lair #216 had been snapped off its underwater mooring by an escaping submarine piloted by a certain redhead. As unpleasant as it had been for Ralph to suddenly discover the sapphire scientist's struggling face firmly sandwiched between his buttocks, he rather imagined that the event had been even less enjoyable from the point of view of the sandwich's filling. "I mean… you've seen one Hench, you've seen them all, right?"

Needless to say, set off a wide round of barely stifled giggles among the collected henches. The incident was one of the great secret tales of Henchdom, never committed to paper or electronic file, but whispered about in the dark of night in Henco barracks, in the back of cheap bar rooms and, of course, at the increasingly rare Hench retirement parties. Heck, even Sam was barely managing to strangle back a snicker, which certainly wasn't the kind of reaction one might normally expect from someone with a bomb around their foot. But then again… despite his ongoing concerns over of losing (in inverse order of worry) a limb, his life or the ability to father any more children, it HAD been a damned funny image for those who weren't having an impromptu prostate exam with someone else's periwinkle-toned proboscis. It was just too bad that the following EMP explosion had wiped out the pictures on everyone's cell phones… not that Ralph had had ANYTHING to do with that, no sir. Not that anyone could prove.

"Right! That's it!" Shego interjected, having no idea what was going on but sure that Drakken was somehow the butt of the joke. Pointing at anyone and everyone in no particular order of preference with a plasmatic pointer, she laid down the new law before the situation could devolve or go off course even further. "Henches… quiet! Drakken… Bomb Fix! Now!"

"Oh, well, it's not important anyway," The hologram of Drakken shrugged, doing an almost too dainty turnaround that stopped a single cyan hair's breadth away from being a pirouette, he returned his beady eyes back to the device of ass destruction strapped around Sam's ankle. Unfortunately, as the sapphire scientist's holographically projected posterior squatted down, the teeny tiny red Speedo that had barely constrained his azurine ass up until this point proved completely and utterly insufficient to prevent the arrisal of a brilliant Blue Moon that struck Shego full beam.

Not that the bouncing moonshine dealer noticed, as, completely unaware that he was potentially adding a dash of insult to go with the rather generous portion of injury his blatantly blue booty had broadsided his former business associate with, he blithered on. "Hmm. Looks like it could be a Henchco 1746 restraining bracelet as the base. But you know, Shego, I'd still have a much better view if you were closer, so if you'd just come and kneel behind my projection…"

"Garble gravel grrrr," Shego garbled inarticulately at the semi-sane genius' wiggling blue backside, which might have translated from the raw Shego-ese as roughly _"Speak not to me of better views, both now and forevermore, for this sight hath done me so wrong"_ had someone been there to provide interpretation. To a man, however, the Henches all wisely chose to interpret it to mean "SHE'S GONNA BLOW!" and those who could do so without attracting undue attention to themselves promptly hit the deck.

Instead, to the amazement of all, including herself, Shego somehow managed to swallowing yet another nauseating helping of "Oh, what a good girl I am." And not only did she dutifully kneel down in the indicated area… in the FUCKING SNOW….but she even flicked on the unit's flashlight function for good measure. Oh, her Princess would be so proud of her right now…

But then, unfortunately for the green angel's chances at Sainthood, at that exact second it suddenly occurred to her that if Drakken was being projected by the Shegofone… using the same projector they used for disguises…

Then THAT meant…

Chortling evily, Shego stealthily pushed the button that pulled up images from the data archives, making adjustments so subtly that Drakken was completely unaware that he was now speaking from Camille Leon's body… a Camille that had been tinted blue, of course so he wouldn't notice the change in his own teeny tiny projected hands.

"There, is THAT better?" Shego smiled sweetly, continuing to tweak the image so that Drakkamile was now wearing ten inch red stiletto heels… and was otherwise quite completely and deliciously naked.

"Oh yes!" Drakken smiled happily, too focused on his work to notice to notice that the reason every had suddenly taken such an intent interest in his each and every movement. "Much better!"

"_Oh, yes. Much better!"_ Thought every single henchman in equally happy unison amidst the clandestine snaps of cellphone photos, while Ralph and Sam both began to compose a large number of jokes turning around some extreme off color uses of the words " "azuline," "azulite," "lapis lazuli" and the ever popular "blue bootie"… Hey, even if there very likely wasn't going to be a Henchman's Life website to post to anymore, they could probably be reworked into Smurfette jokes at some later time.

And it sure as hell beat thinking about the guys with guns on the other side of wall of smoke, who had to be wondering exactly what was going on by this point.

################################

As it happened, on the other side of the smoke barrier, only a few small hills away, Ralph's former companions WERE beginning to get antsy.

"What in the hell is taking that guy so long?" Rod Troja growled under his breath as he peered nervously at the area where the henchman he had know only as "that fat guy" had disappeared. The Hench's absence was beginning to worry Troja, who as the highest ranking Widow in the small fire team should have technically been the one who should have been in charge from the outset. However, as one of the Widow's field quartermasters, his actual combat experience was relatively limited and he'd only let himself be drafted into the team that went to fight the fires as he'd thought that would be the group with the lowest likelihood of actually coming into contact with hostile forces.

No, Troja wasn't a coward, per se… but he had always had an overabundance of the natural level of caution any soldier should have, something that had later escalated to an even higher level of personal priority after an ill-timed visit to the genetics web site YourForebearsdotnet, had revealed that not only was he one of the rare surviving descendents of a once distinguished military family whose other branches had all been pruned prematurely due to excessive displays of heroisim. And it didn't help that it had also turned out that his family name translated to "Red Shirt" in the original native Dutch.

So, it was perhaps understandable that, when it came to any situation that seemed to call for putting oneself on the front line when supported by anything less than overwhelming numbers, such as, for example, having to go to negotiate with hostile forces during the middle of a firefight next to a what was still a mostly active forest fire, he'd seen no reason not to let someone else handle that task. Especially when that person had more or less volunteered without even being coerced and the records as to who had done what to whom when could be adjusted after the fact as necessary.

On the other hand, now that he thought about it… there was little doubt from the brief exchange they'd had that the force that had been shooting at them… whoever they might work for… was composed primarily of Henches.

Unusually well armed Henches and apparently a whole lot of them.

So… maybe sending in someone who might have had closer ties to the opposition forces than to his own could have been a major tactical error…

"Oh fuck," Troja groaned miserably, suddenly sure that, at this very moment, their former 'friend' was no doubt spilling his guts to his old pals about exactly how many men and weapons the Widow team still had after the destruction of their Leviathan. And that meant, despite his natural inclination to not take charge, he'd probably better come up with a "git the hell out of Dodge" strategy, ASAP!

"Kurtz! Quilp! Sikes!" He motioned quickly to the three men lying nearest to him, who conveniently also happened to be the next three senior Widows, and within seconds Sikes and Quilp had slithered, snakelike, on their bellies up to rest beside him, while the larger Kurtz, who enjoyed his beer just a little too much but was an A-class cook who ran one hell of a fine field commissary, employed a humping system of locomotion that rested somewhere between the inching of an inchworm and the desperate struggles of a beached whale.

"Have you been able to get through to Dallas or Command yet?" Troja queried Sikes, the Widow who'd drawn field com duty, taking extra care to keep his volume and tones at a level so soft that they wouldn't carry more than a few feet.

"Naw, either whoever's doing all this jamming knows what they're doing, or our guys just ain't answerin'," Sikes drawled, his half-lidded eyes betraying not the slightest hint that something was up, should anyone be watching. "Might be able to punch through all the noise to Cholla if we sent an all bands with no encryption but…"

"We'd just as likely attract the wrong kind of attention," Troja agreed with extreme understatement. It would really be more like sending up a flare that screamed _Just Come And Shoot Us Already!_ "Okay, in that case, slide back and start passing the word to our guys to get ready to amscray. JUST our guys, and only the ones who can move well enough to keep up… It's time we cut our losses and bailed."

"Wait…" the bald headed Kurtz blubbered in confusion. "Are you talking about Bacon? We can't leave without Bacon."

"If he can't walk, we're ditching him," Troja hissed to shush the overly loud idiot. "And were leaving the henches too. I think we're about to run into a major conflict of interest."

"You wanna maybe just pop 'em now?" Quilp grinned evilly. None of the Widows were innocents, but the shifty eyed merc was one of those who considered the occasional wetwork assignments to be one of the job's best perks, and he'd been looking extra forward to reducing their unit's overhead ever since word had started passing among the Widows that a Case Zeta code might be imminent.

"No," Troja countered. "The faster and quieter we can get out of here, the better… and one of them might get off a lucky shot."

"How 'bout we tell 'em we're leaving them to guard the wounded," Kurtz suggested, having finally figured out that they were supposed to be whispering. "That way we won't be just dropping Bacon in the fire."

"Yeah, sure," Troja acquiesced, not that he really cared worth a damn. He doubted that Kurtz would have cared either, except for the fact that Bacon owed him money. Of course, Bacon owed money to everyone, and if didn't owe you money directly, he probably owed it to someone who owed you, or…

"Which way?" was all the laconic Sikes wanted to know.

"Uh… thatta way… around that ridge," Troja motioned in a direction that he thought would theoretically take them back towards the other half of the original fire team, the half still commanded by Dallas. Mostly, though, it was the direction that he was pretty sure was the furthest from where most of the gunfire had come from…

What he didn't know, though, was that due to the constant shifting of the smoke and the almost complete darkness, his own internal compass was now hopelessly broken and the "that way" that he thought would take them to safety was actually about to take them directly into the maw of the very forces he was trying to avoid.

################################

"Got it!" Drakken exclaimed, unaware that he was doing it from the face of a very enlarged blue Rufus that was inexplicably wearing one of the sheer costumes that Monique had designed for Kim and Shego's first photo shoot.

"You know how to turn them off?" Shego asked quickly, thumbing the dial on the projector back to normal so that she was speaking to the 'real' doc and not any of the amusing variations she had thought up over the last minute or so.

"No," Drakken frowned. "But I know what they are now: Model #7834 explosive manacles from Fa Lung Kei and Pei Yon, a Chinese Henchco knock off. Someone has retro-engineered in the proximity ring, but they're easy enough to hack into." Another frown. "Now if only I could read Chinese…"

"Wade, are you monitoring?" Shego asked, realizing the time had come for divine intervention.

"This is Jim, Wade's in the can. How can I help?"

"I know Princess has a way of running a scanned image through a translator. Can you do something like that with the live feed that Drakken is viewing?"

"Anything's possible for a Possible," the younger Possible confirmed. "You should see it on your head's up now, Dr. Lipsky. Also, I'm running a match for Fa Lung Kei products to see if we can pull up the original manufacturer's schematics. Do you want them as a side by side or an overlay?"

"Er… side by side, please," Drakken blinked as a sea of blue glowing fireflies in the shapes of numbers, icons and blueprints all miraculously materialized in the air around him. "That's quite unexpectedly... helpful, young man."

"Oh, it's no big. Transcoding the data through an intuitive linguistics program was a snap and anyone could have hacked into that archaic high security server in Longhua. Whoops, Wade's finally outta the can now and I really gotta go! Let us know if you need anything else bye!"

"Welcome to my strange new world," Shego grinned at the boggled former blue meanie. "Now get back to work Doc."

"I AM WORKING!" the blue projection scowled. "And if you'd just stop jiggling that damn gi… Shegofone… I could concentrate!"

"For the last time, I AM NOT JIGGLING!"

"Yes you are and there you go again!"

"Hey," Sam interrupted. "Did anyone else feel that?"

"Feel what?" Shego asked, the lower half of her body completely numb from kneeling on the rocks in freezing slush.

"I think it was just thunder, I thought I heard thunder earlier," Ralph replied cautiously just as Drakken started to ask how he could be expected to feel anything through a holographic interface. However, they were both simultaneously interrupted by a resounding Thoom!

THOOOM!

"Okay, that I felt…" Shego twitched, her Shego-senses tingling as she jerked to her feet.

"Yeah, me too…" Ralph concurred. "I felt it too."

THOOOOOM! It was much louder now and Shego could feel the tremor roll up the length of her legs and ripple through the softer portions of her upper abdomen.

"Now you are DEFINITELY jiggling," Drakken whispered.

"Not a time for boob jokes, Doc," Shego snarled, waiting for the next THOOOOM!

But what came instead was far more frightening.

"SHEEEEGGOOOO!" Wailed a voice. An almost alien voice filled with hate and malice. "SHEEEEGOOOOO!"

And then there came the biggest THOOOM! yet, one so powerful that every Hench standing on anything but the most stable ground suddenly found themselves scrambling to remain erect while Henchman #86382's already loose and wobbly Hencho Dental Plan-issue 'looks-almost-like-real-gold' fillings decided to take this opportunity to drop straight out of his mouth and burrow for China in the rattling gravel at his feet.

THOOOOOOOMMM!

And then through the smoke there came a blast of hot, rank gas as the very air in front of them seemed to boil and ripple! And as the stealth field… for that's what it was… suddenly unwrapped, it revealed the most bizarre machine Shego had ever seen in her life… and having worked with a man who once built a fortress out of cheese and a sixty thousand dollar pickle jar opener, that was saying a hell of a lot!

It had one great foot and a long spindly single leg that snaked up fifty feet in the air to a preposterously tiny body that seemed to be little more than a pair of seats, a handful of controls and one VERY large bell shaped cannon. What it looked like, in fact, was the nearly spitting image of the dancing lamp that always hopped out in front of the logo of those damn CG movies that had made it so hard to find a decent hand drawn cartoon anymore.

And that same form of 'hopping' locomotion was how it moved as well, for as she watched, the insane contraption leaped up into the air and came down again with yet another thunderous THOOOOOOOOM of doom.

**THOOOOOOOOMMMM!**

And as it came down again, Shego realized why it looked so familiar… it was one of the legs of the Tripod they'd just destroyed, and while the 'foot' was actually the original cockpit and weapons section, the new "body" was actually one of the original feet… still at the end of a stitched together leg… to which had been attached chairs, a very large plasma weapon and two VERY pissed off looking supervillains.

"SHEEEEGGOOO!" Screamed Electronique as Motor Ed furious operated the Luxo-tank with what appeared to be a large hand crank. "SHEEEGGOOO!"

"I knew it." Shego groaned. "With all these balls in the air I KNEW we were going to end up forgetting something."

###################################

_**Ye Old Legal stuff:** Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Dr. Drakken aka Drew Lipsky, Bonnie Rockwaller, Camille Leon, Hirotaka, Yori, Sensei, Senor Senior Jr., Jim Possible, Wade Load, Monique, Rufus, Electronique, Motor Ed, the Henchco Henches, the Yamanouchi Ninja School, Global Justice and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Cholla and Dallas, though only mentioned in passing here, are property of the Malpasso Company, along with the Black Widows. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Quilp, Sikes and Kurtz are all public domain, the first two respectively borrowed from Dickens and the last from Joseph Conrad. Original characters Sam Jackson (no relation), Ralph Emerson Shepherd and Rod Troja may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

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	61. Chapter 61

**_Author's Note:_**_ Yes, a new chapter at last! Sorry I've been gone so long, but the real word got insanely busy. Not only have I had a lot of paid writing and directing work, but since about 90% of the work coming in is CG these days, I'd hit the point where I knew I really had to upgrade my education in Computer Graphics in order to stay competitive. That meant spending a lot of what spare time I've had learning mocap, rendering, modeling, etc., rather than writing. And… what can I say… time got away from me and FFN kind of fell off my peripheral radar. Oops. _

_So, let's see… for those who don't want to go back and re-read the previous 60 Chapters, here's roughly everything that's going on in a nutshell:_

_Gill and Aviarius are still in jail, along with Professor Dementor, Monkey Fist, DNAmy and the now testicle-less Duff Killigan._

_Summer Gale is still in Global Justice protective custody._

_The Mathter is still dead._

_Jackie the Jackal never got his invitation, so he's still working his day job._

_Anna is in New York, making deals with publishers based on the first galleys of the early Kim/Shego photo shoots._

_Peter Laska is still trying to get other celebrities to come out for his TV special._

_The attitudinator-ed Hell-O-Gram courier is playing canasta and waiting for the signboard museum to open._

_When last seen, Monique and Tara were hitting the shops in Rio._

_Senior Senior Senior is at Kim and Shego's lair… er, Global Rescue HQ along with Mrs. Dr. Possible._

_Mr. Dr. Possible is at the Space Center and still missing an eyebrow._

_Wade and the Possible Twins are at Wade's house, where Mrs. Load is currently baking pies and her special lasagna._

_Helen Dassak and Seymour Datum are crunching madly through the goldmine of Henchco data that the Possible twins and Wade hacked into._

_Nana Possible and her fellow retired GJ agents are at a casino that Shego is a partial owner of, helping crunch through all that data._

_Dr. Director is very, very busy coordinating both the number crunching efforts and the evacuation of the towns downstream from the endangered dam._

_Jack Hench is at Henchco, watching his empire crumble while his (former) head accountant is running off to his new employers, The Friendly, Friendly Bank and Trust. _

_Big Daddy Brotherson is holed up in a bunker somewhere. _

_Will Du is in Global Rescue one on his way to a destination that has not yet been revealed. _

_Kim is taking a forced time-out (per Shego) in the hovercraft along with Cyn Rushing, Gay Ellis, the pilot Stevens and the trussed up Team Impossible and Adrena Lynne. _

_Bonnie, Ron and Hirotaka… disguised as Camille Leon, a henchman and Kim… are in a truck heading toward Castle Senior. They are accompanied by a small mixed crew of Ninjas and GJ agents disguised in the uniforms of a captured team of Senior Senior Junior's henchmen. The remainder of that team is presumably holding the now uniformless Henches somewhere._

_The real Camille, also uniformless when last seen, is tied up in a ski chalet along with the team of henches SHE had, who also belonged to Senior Senior Junior. _

_Yori was last seen near Castle Senior with a team of even more ninjas._

_Junior, meanwhile, is still holed up inside Castle Senior with the dwindling group of his remaining force of henches, his film production crew, a large gold penis statue and some extreme delusions of grandeur. _

_The first and second of the Nanny Nane/Gemini forces of henches, codenamed Omega and Kamikaze, and led by Nane and Gemini respectively, are moving on foot at full speed towards Castle Senior. _

_Cholla and the main team of the Black Widows… now sans vehicles and also on foot… are also making their way through the forest towards the Castle as fast as their feet will carry them. _

_The team of Black Widows that was originally sent to put out the fire has split into two groups, with the first half of that fire team, led by Dallas, currently MIA. _

_The second half of the Black WIdow fire team, (formerly led by Ralph and now led by Rod Troja,) has run into the THIRD of Nane/Gemini's three strike forces, who are coincidentally being led by Ralph's friend Sam Jackson, (no relation to the actor of the same name.) Abandoning both their wounded and the regular Henches who were attached to their group, Troja's Widows have bugged out, and are currently on the move trying to get as as far away from the opposing force (which they mistakenly believe to be far bigger than it is,) as possible._

_And, finally, Shego and Ralph have now hooked up with that same third team of Nane/Gemini henches, codenamed the Morituri, and are attempting to disarm the proximity ring bombs that they have discovered that all the Nane/Gemini hench teams have strapped to their ankles. To this end they have the help of Dr. Drakken, who has actually just stepped off a beach somewhere and is present only via holographic projection, but a major monkey wrench has been thrown in the gears with the unexpected reappearance of Electronique, Motor Ed and a VERY strange giant mecha. _

_There, I think that's everyone you need to know about. So, on with the show. And as always: __**Ye Old Legal stuff at de bottom!**_

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**AT THE CENTERFOLD OF THE STORM**

Chapter 61

###############################D

Never taking her gaze off the hundreds of readouts cascading across the sub-windows of her master monitors like electronic waterfalls, Dr. Director carefully reached up and used the sodden back of her uniformed cuff to both push the soggy strands of hair out of her one good eye and blot the sweat off her perspiration dappled brow. Somewhere, submerged among all the streams of electronic flotsam and jetsam, bobbing up and down in that seemingly endless sea of displayed data, were the last keys she needed.

Not to put Hench away. They'd already accumulated enough damning evidence to effectively shut down Henchco for years. As the hacked leak in Hench's information pipeline continued to gush and the concealing layers of encryption were slowly washed away from the ever accumulating pool of data, it had quickly become clear that Hench's promises of complete client confidentiality and anonymity had never extended to his own internal records keeping. Oh, there were a frustrating number of major transactions carried out with those damned Plutonium Cards, which would probably keep a number of major super villains from being immediately swept away by the deluge of carefully itemized receipts that documented exactly who had bought what on what date, but the same wasn't true for several less savvy and even less savory governments, over three dozen terrorist organizations, hundreds of smaller time super villain wannabes and one highly unethical computing firm who, it turned out, had been using a variant of Henchco's mind control chips to create an almost fanatical level of loyalty to their illogically popular phones and personal computing devices.

But, as gratifying and amazing as all that might be in the long term, what she needed now was something to handle the IMMEDIATE situation, and if Possible had guessed right…

"Bet… I mean, Ma'am," Helen Dassak suddenly interjected. "I think I may have something."

"Send it to my screen," Betty replied, sparing a single cyclopean glance at the equally disheveled and sweat-soaked Dassak. Global Justice now had over three hundred agents and former agents sifting through the millions of Henchco files at a feverish pace, and every single one that was deemed "of interest" was being shoved through the brain of the attractive young intel expert, whose ability to link seemingly unrelated data bordered on the supernatural. Chewing her lower lip with her too perfect white teeth, Betty followed the red-highlighted items Helen was sending her at the speed of light. Bip. Bip. Bip.

"Bingo," She nodded in agreement as the last file opened, wishing Global Justice rules allowed a commanding officer to kiss a subordinate on the lips while on duty. "I concur and excellent work Helen. Mr. Load, are you available?"

"Right here Ma'am," chimed in the voice of the young genius as his face suddenly appeared on a screen among the data flow. "Have you…?"

"Sending it now," Betty answered with satisfaction. "Looks like scenario D-36 is go."

###############################D

Kim looked up, a granola bar half inserted in her mouth as the information spooled in front of her on the shuttle's monitor screen. She should have felt a glow of satisfaction at being proved correct, but instead she felt faintly nauseous. "Understood, Betty. I'll get our half of Surprise Package in motion. In the meantime, what's the latest status on the evacuation?"

"Well, it may be redundant now since your people disarmed the bombs on the glacier," Dr. Director's image blinked (or winked, actually, given the single eye,) "But the first three villages below the dam are mostly cleared, as well as most of the low lying areas of the next two. Of course, that's based on door to door sweeps by the local authorities and trusting that the most recent records they're working from are accurate. There's no way of real knowing how many people we might have missed. Beyond that, however, we were able to use air raid sirens and other less subtle methods to get people to high ground, so overall we've actually done a lot better than I thought likely at this point. I'm assuming this is going somewhere?"

"Yeah," Kim's brows knit as she digested the information. "Wade, can you pull up that last overhead map?"

"You got it, Kim." Wade's image popped up on the monitor, then flickered and one half of Dr. Director's image was replaced by a 3D schematic of the area surrounding the lake and below, though from Betty's point of view, it would be one half of Kim's image. "As you can see, we've had the time to input the known depths of the lake, and Kim's been concerned about the transports on the lake being a potential escape route..."

"However," Kim continued. "If you'll look on the overhead, you can see that, except for the one that sank, they're all now clustered in fairly close to shore in a relatively shallow area. So if you think it's safe to sneak the flood gates open just a little more…"

"We could effectively strand them there," The one eyed woman nodded, picking up on the idea immediately.

"Not to mention that it would make also it a lot harder for anyone else to use the lake as a landing zone," Kim agreed. "So if you're reasonably sure that we can safely start increasing the runoff into the river without endangering anyone, it would make me feel a little better about the odds of anyone else dropping into the party behind us."

"Which," Wade added as his face popped back in over the image, "given that both the Tripod and the SkyVixen were able to elude our best tracking systems coming in, is no small consideration."

"Right," the director of Global Justice concurred. "I'll get someone on it. The team that's been assisting Will is probably the closest."

"Please and thank you," Kim smiled as Wade and Betty's images popped off, but the curve of her lips got noticeably thinner once she was no longer 'on camera.'

"Are you okay, Kim?" Cyn asked nervously, passing Kim and insulated bottle of sport drink to replace the now empty glass that she'd been drinking from.

"As fine as I'm going to be," Kim sighed as she took the bottle and clipped it to her belt. She'd been able to push it to the back of her mind as long as she'd been talking, but simply sitting in the nice warm shuttle had, ironically, given all the aches and pains that she'd been ignoring time to finally to catch up with her. Her recently broken arm was hurting like hell, and she could feel the broken ribs every time she took a deep breath. But Shego had been right about needing to eat. The sugar in the Croc-aid was kicking in and by the time that gave out, the solids would be starting to hit her system.

And, with any luck, this would all be over by then. One way or another.

"Yori," she spoke into the air in front of her as she bit off another chunk of the cereal bar. "Are you guys in position?"

"Yes, Kim-san," Came the Japanese girl's soft voice. "As much as is possible, without betraying our presence, that is."

"Good enough," Kim nodded. "Ron?"

"Ready to roll in when you give the word, K.P."

"Right," Kim grunted as she staggered to her feet and began to re-latch her helmet. "Cyn, Gay, secure yourselves and the prisoners. It's going to get a little windy in here. Evan, stand by to open the hatch."

"Yes ma'am, Miss Possible," Evan Stevens acknowledged.

"In that case," Kim grimaced, "Get ready to drop on my mark, and let's just hope nothing else we've forgotten comes to bite us on the ass."

###############################D

With a grunt and a wheeze, Lieutenant Moody cautiously reached up from his precarious position on the side of the rocky outcrop. Expecting to fall to his death at any moment, he was instead gratified to feel the lead climber's hand clamp around his. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to relax the death grip he'd had on the cliff face in order to let himself be pulled up and over onto the large ledge of rock that his team had spent the last five nail-biting minutes inching their way towards.

Fortunately, as he flopped over onto the narrow escarpment, he saw with relief that this ridge would suit their needs as well as he'd hoped it would, affording the team a clear vantage point that overlooked the glacier as well as a (more or less) direct line of sight view in the general direction of the pass that Cholla and the rest of the Black Widows were currently heading through. That was good, because between the fires, the rocks, the trees and all the damn smoke on the ice sheet side and the rapidly darkening shadows on the forest side, it wasn't going to be an ideal place to keep either direction under observation for long. Still, as a place to launch and view an exchange of signal rockets, it was probably as good as they were likely to find without a lot more searching. And, given that the sooner they recalled the firefighting team that had been dispatched under Dallas, the sooner they'd have armored transport again, that would have to be good enough.

Of course, that was assuming Dallas and his men hadn't succumbed to the same "gremlin" that had hit Cholla's main force, and that any of them were in any shape to be able to come to the rescue. And assuming that Moody and his team would personally benefit from said armored cavalry, which, given the very high chance that Moody's team would be giving away their own position to any hostiles in the area the second they started firing signals, wasn't exactly stellar. That was the reason Moody and his men had been required to put a considerable bit of both horizontal and vertical distance between themselves and the other Widows before lighting anything up, after all. Which was another damn good reason for not pressing any further up the mountain and taking the risk of getting themselves trapped higher up on some crag like a treed wildcat. No, this spot was far from perfect, but going down from here would be a lot faster than going up had been, and the rough terrain directly below should offer enough cover to skulk away before any callers came calling.

"Starburst, Whistler, Whistler," the Widow Lieutenant issued the regroup code sequence as he turned and allowed his own sorry butt to settle into an ice-cold but conveniently chair-like rock.

Damn, he was getting too old for this crap. He could keep up with the younger men well enough when he could take periodic breathers in the seat of a Scorpion or Leviathan, but between the freezing temperatures of this frigid ice-hole, the recent fiery destruction of the Widow's main motor pool, and the unanticipated need to scale a God-dammed MOUNTAIN because someone (possibly Possible, possibly Senior, possibly someone else,) had so effectively jammed radio communications in the entire area surrounding the glacier that they were reduced to using ROCKETS for communication… Well, maybe it was time to think about getting out of the mercenary game before his age and a bullet caught up with him.

With three quick "thoomps," the Widow with the mortar sent three ultra-bright flares blazing into the air in rapid succession, and Moody stuck his dirt-caked fingers in his ears braced himself for the concussive bang of the Starburst and the earsplitting screams of its shrieking companion Whistlers. Hopefully help would be on its way soon.

He had no way of knowing that, in sending up those rockets, he'd just shot down his chances of retirement forever.

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"Starburst, whistler, whistler," Nanny Nane counted off, her fake combat teeth glinting in a feral smile as she watched the brilliant lights in the sky fade, falter and fall past the obscuring line of a distant stand of trees. Between all the radar and communications jamming, not to mention the heavy smoke from the forest fire and the general darkness that comes from being in the mountains after sunset, she hadn't been exactly sure which groups were where on the playing field. However, there was no mistaking the standard "regroup" signal that came straight out of the Black Widow codebook she'd memorized. Given the location and angle, it made it an almost sure thing that at least part of that opposing force was still back on the ice somewhere.

Which was good, as of all the forces that she knew had to be converging, the Widows were the wild card that had worried her the most. Before she'd had to pull in her Umbrella Recon system, she'd been able to ascertain that at least one contingent of Henchco's elite mercenaries had suffered some kind of massive strike that had taken out all of their armored units, but she hadn't been sure whether the unit that was now on foot was the foremost or rearmost element or perhaps even the entire body. Knowing that a good portion of the Widows were probably still out on the ice, though, implied that the Widows' chances of intercepting either her own forces or beating them to Camille Leon's column were now much closer to nil than she'd dared hope. Better yet, the trackers she'd attached to her own Morituris showed that they were in the general area that she surmised the Widow relief force would probably have to cross. And THAT meant she still had an excellent chance of using the Morituris for their original purpose of killing two birds with one stone.

On the other hand, she frowned, while the fact that the Widows were resorting to communicating with something as crude as flares could only mean that their own original plans of deployment had somehow completely fallen apart, it also meant that their communications must be at least as effectively jammed as her own. And THAT made it unlikely that any of the jamming she was having to deal with… at least at the moment… was coming from the Widows. And while the well established fortifications of the Senior's castle were the likely source of much of the interference, she couldn't rule out the odds that there were more major players in the game than she was aware of. In fact, it was perfectly possible that…

Nane froze, and not because of the sub-arctic draft that was whistling between her bony knees.

"Possible…" Nane rolled the thought around in her knotty old head, pausing only to spit a nasty gob of Denture-Grip scented spittle, which hit the ground with a nasty splat and slowly began to glazed over into an icy spit-sicle as she masticated the known facts like a mangy dog working over an ancient soup bone. If it was anyone else, the odds against it would be astronomical. But Nanny had invested a good deal of time into researching her current target since their last encounter, and if the nasty little hunch that was sending shivers up her hunchy back was right, the excrement could really be about to hit the fan.

Not for the old battleaxe and her Omegas, of course. It was Sheldon and his Kamikazes that were the most likely to suffer whatever ill fortunes might be planned for Nane's forces… especially since THEY were still operating under the mistaken assumption that they were just one half of a pincer-like attack and could therefore expect quick reinforcements if things were to suddenly go south. Nane's REAL plan to hold her own Omegas back and "accidentally" arrive a little late to the dance would no doubt come as a bit of a shock to Sheldon, but it did have the excellent perk of leaving her with a fresh complement of men to take on whatever bloodied remnants of opposing forces survived after the unexpected detonation of several dozen exploding Kamikazes.

As for the Morituris… the confirmation that the Widows still had men back on the ice suddenly made them not quite as superfluous as she'd expected them to be. So she'd give those unwitting loose ends a few minutes before pulling the plug. Just in case.

But it would be just a few minutes, either way, as things were about to get very chaotic, VERY quickly.

###############################D

"Oh crap!" Shego hissed as the barrel of the Plasma Cannon that was being aimed at her began to glow. "Guys, get ready to run for cover while I draw their fire."

"Actually, THEY should be safe," Drakken's hologram… still displaying the former fiend's image as a giant blue mole rat… argued. "After all, any supervillain who targets another villain's Henchmen would be in violation of the basic terms of his Henchco contract and my cousin Eddie would never…"

"KILL THEM ALL!" interrupted the shrieking voice of the brassiere and panty-clad and extremely blue woman on top of the insane device that resumed hopping towards them with a series of earth-shaking mega-hops , punctuated by the ear-splitting P-THOOM! P-TOOM! of Motor Ed's jury rigged plasma cannon unloading rounds in the general direction of Shego, the Henches and Drakken's projection.

"Or I could be wrong!" the ex-villain's ghost admitted as his holographic likeness began to fly rapidly westward (despite the fact that he was still apparently facing eastward,) tied as it was to both the Shegofone and its namesake, who was madly sprinting in the same general direction. Meanwhile, the sordid and assorted Henches of Strikeforce Morituri very wisely began to beat feet towards the nearest concentration of concealing smoke.

"Scatter!" Shego yelled, somewhat redundantly as the command was issued towards the already vacating Henches' high-tailing hind ends. If there was one order that rarely had to be spelled out for Henchco employees, it was when to retreat, but as she suddenly recalled the explosive problem that they'd been in the middle of trying to address, she hastily amended the order to: "No! Wait! I mean scatter, but stay together! And don't leave your packs behind!"

"Terrific," Sam huffed and puffed as he made sure to hold the backpack that held one of the proximity detonators for the bombs on the Morituri's leg VERY close. "Hired by WEE, nearly drowned in a frozen lake, wired into a bomb by a psycho old lady and now this! What a week I'm having."

"It DOES make our insurance package look pretty pathetic," Ralph admitted as chuffed alongside his friend. "Not that I think I'm eligible anymore. So give me a heads up if you think you're going to blow…"

"Oh, swell! NOW you agree that our insurance sucks," Sam groaned as the two of them disappeared into the smoke.

"Shego, slow down!" Drakken protested, his projected eyes bobbing up and down as, thousands of miles away, as his remote real self attempted to make visual sense out of the wildly bouncing images being sent back to his display via Shego's Shegofone. "I can't see what's going on!"

"Consider yourself lucky," Shego grunted as she hopped back just in time to dodge an incoming round. "Just keep working on how to get those locks open and disarming the explosives and let me worry about the immediate situation."

P-TOOM! P-TOOM! Interjected the plasma cannon, lobbing green bursts of energy wildly across the general landscape.

"DIE SHEGO DIE!" Electronique warbled, now standing on the back of the cobbled-together seat of the giant-hoppy mech and shaking one blue fist at the dodging derriere of the dashing green damsel as she slapped the back of Ed's head with the back of the other! "Shoot her, damn it!"

"I'm trying babe, I'm trying, but Green's, like, way fast, and I'm aiming manually!" Motor Ed wailed, frantically trying to counterbalance his own precarious position on the Mecha-Hopper so that he wouldn't be thrown off by the recoil of either the massive weapon or the hopper's hopping hops. His reward was another knock on the noggin. "Ow! Watch the hair!"

And all of this, of course, was just a fraction of a second before they ran straight into SECOND wall of battle.

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"Yeaaaaaaaagh!" screamed Sam, Ralph and the other Henches as they narrowly missed being run over by the approaching armored vehicle.

"What in the he…urk!" Dallas screeched with a squawk as the driver of the Widow's last remaining Scorpion frantically steered to the right just in time to avoid the flying pack of Henches that flew out of the bilious smoke like bats out of hell, their fleeing forms fleetingly framed in the blinding shafts of the Scorpion's halogen high beams before they disappeared like wraiths again in the even thicker smoke on the other side.

"Those were Henches," His driver stated needlessly, ignoring the bitching from the battered men in the back of the vehicle.

"No shit, Sherlock," Dallas snapped. The commander of the other half of the firefighting team and his half of the men had been racing towards the origin of the flares when he'd realized the smoke over here was still so thick that the second half of his original squad, the half that had gone off with Troja and the ballsy Henchman, might have missed the regroup signal. Not wanting to face Cholla's wrath for showing up with only a single Scorpion when he'd taken out a Leviathan as well, Dallas had decided to make a VERY quick sweep down the fireline and make sure Troja, Quilp and the others weren't left behind.

This, as it was turning out, had perhaps not been such a wise decision, and his jaw dropped in a wild double-take as Shego and what appeared to be a giant floating blue rodent flashed past on the left. "That was Shego!"

"…and Rocky the flying squirrel?" The driver hazarded a guess, making the fatal mistake of taking his eyes off the smoke in front of him for just a fraction of second.

P-TOOM! P-TOOM! From out of the smoke, some kind of glowing anti-something fire raked the road in head of them, causing the Scorpion's driver to hit the brakes so hard that the vehicle went into a wild, uncontrollable skid in the half melted snow, just as a giant hopping THING came bounding over them.

"Incoming!" yelled at least three of the other Widows who'd been hanging on the framework of the Scorpion, as everyone went flying in a half dozen different directions. Fortunately, the slushy snow was still thick enough to cushion the bulk of their, falls somewhat, but unfortunately, it was also extremely wet, cold and unpleasant in the way that only someone who has had a slushball shoved down the back of their pants can truly understand.

"And I have no clue what the hell that was," the driver added, attempting to locate the varied locations of his now shattered teeth before pitching forward, unconscious.

"Return fire!" Dallas screamed, not specifying a direction as the crazed slide in the slush had spun them so radically around that he wasn't exactly sure where either the original attack had come from or where the hopping thing and the fleeing Henches had disappeared to. Still, at the moment, it seemed like the best defense was a really good offense and the one thing they had lots of was bullets.

Ironically, perched high atop the Mecha-hopper and deafened by the constant P-Tooming of the Plasma Cannon, Ed and Electronique weren't even aware of the rapid ping-ping-pinging of the continuous bullet fire impacting against the Hopper's one giant leg

Others, however, were not quite as blissfully oblivious.

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"We're under attack!" Sikes yelled as a wild spray of bullets came hurtling out of the smoke and tore the ground around them into ragged clumps of mud and rotten snow. Until that instant, Rod Troja's unit of Black Widows… the ones that Ralph had run off on only a few short minutes before… had been under the impression that they'd retreated completely from the field of battle, Instead, it seemed to have snuck back up on them when they weren't looking. Thanks to the smoke and the sonic distortion caused by the still burning fires, the first that they had known that they were under attack was when the ground in front of them was suddenly peppered with an advancing hail of liquid lead.

"Aaaa! They've surrounded us" Kurtz wailed as he threw himself, belly first, into the slush.

"WHO's surrounded us?" Troja shot back, though he and the rest of his men had lost no time in joining Kurtz in the Slurpee-like ooze. "Can anyone see anything?"

Wisely, not a single Widow got up to take a look.

"It's got to be those Henches," Quilp spat, both in general disgust and also because he'd half-swallowed some of the semi-frozen mud cocktail. "Those sneaky bastards must have snuck around us while we were waiting."

"Can we jus kill 'em now, boss?" Sikes drawled.

"What the hell," Troja snarled. "We're not supposed to leave any survivors anyway. Fire at will!"

###############################D

**_Ye Old Legal stuff:_**_ Kim Possible, Shego, Ron Stoppable, Dr. Betty Director, Dr. Drakken aka Drew Lipsky, Bonnie Rockwaller, Yori, Will Du, Senor Senior Jr., Wade Load, Electronique, Motor Ed, the Henchco Henches, the Yamanouchi Ninja School, Global Justice and all other characters borrowed from the wonderful KP Universe are the creations of Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and those names are all trademarks of the Disney media organizations. Cholla, Dallas and Moody, along with name "The Black Widows," are property of the Malpasso Company, while Quilp, Sikes and Kurtz are public domain, the first two from Dickens and the last from Joseph Conrad. Original characters Cyn Rushing, Sam Jackson (no relation), Ralph Emerson Shepherd, Rod Troja and Evan Stevens may be used by any and all, just send their paychecks to me. Although use in this context may be considered fair under parody law, just in case: this work was not created for profit, no money changed hands etc. Also, this story takes place at a time at which all characters shown should be considered to be over the legal age of 18… except, obviously Wade and the Tweebs. _

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